Eastern Iowa Airport moving baggage-screening machines

If all goes according to plan, travelers flying out of The Eastern Iowa Airport will believe they've gone "back to the future” in the fall of 2012.

The Cedar Rapids Airport Commission on Monday took the first step toward moving baggage-screening machines out of the lobby of the passenger terminal. Passengers will be able to check their luggage at an airline ticket counter and not handle it again until they reach their destination, like they did before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The installation of a $7.2 million inline baggage-handling system and terminal lobby improvements will be funded with passenger facilities charge revenue, the federal Transportation Security Administration, a possible state grant and airport revenues. The airport does not receive any property tax revenue.

Large screening machines installed in the lobby of the terminal after 9/11 have forced passengers to check their luggage at the airline counter and then carry it to the machines for processing. Arriving passengers must walk around a baggage-screening machine to enter the terminal's baggage claim area.

Airport Director Tim Bradshaw said moving the screening devices behind the scenes and incorporating them in the airport's baggage-handling system also will involve construction of a 10,000-square-foot addition to the rear of the passenger terminal.

“The addition will provide a bag makeup area,” Bradshaw said. “The bags will go by conveyer belt from the airline counter to the TSA screening room where they will be processed. After that, they will flow onto a large carousel in the makeup room and airline crews will load them on the carts that will take them to the aircraft.”

The commission on Monday approved setting a Jan. 21 public hearing on the plans and specifications for the first phase of the three-phase project. The commission also approved a $278,595 task order with Foth Infrastructure & Environment LLC of Cedar Rapids for design of the initial phase of the baggage-handling system, the terminal addition, new airline ticket offices and additional restrooms in the baggage claim area.

“We remodeled and updated the upper concourse last year,” Bradshaw said. “After the baggage-screening machines are removed, we will be able to update the terminal lobby. We will have some new modular ticket counters as well as remodel the existing bathrooms and create a second set of bathrooms.”

Bradshaw said the work will be done in phases to minimize disruption for travelers, the airlines and airport tenants. Initial design work and bidding will be done by February so initial construction can begin by the end of March to use passenger facilities charge revenue.

Dan Thies, chairman of the Cedar Rapids Airport Commission, said the pace of the project will be important in terms of its impact on travelers, the airlines and airport tenants.

“Logistics will be absolutely critical,” said Thies, president and chief executive officer of OPN Architects in Cedar Rapids. “This project is long overdue.”

The passenger terminal has restrooms on the upper concourse, but only passengers with a ticket and boarding pass are permitted to pass through security in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. If the lobby restrooms are out of order, there is no alternative at this time for anyone who is not traveling.