Completion of a major capital project at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport will soon mean a return to normal when it comes to traffic flow at the facility.
On or about Nov. 8, all buses and shuttles will relocate back to the baggage-claim (lower-level) roadway. During the airport’s “Project Journey” development effort, those vehicles had been relocated to the ticketing/check-in (upper-level) roadway.
Rental-car, parking and hotel shuttles will be among those making the switch. Taxi, ride-share and other vehicles will continue to use the lower-level roadway for picking up individuals, as they have during construction efforts.
The Project Journey effort at the airport is now mostly finished; new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening areas, a cornerstone of the effort, are expected to open about Nov. 9.
But there remains some tidying up to do.
“We still have work to be done . . . over several more months,” said Jack Potter, CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
Those efforts include dismantling the existing TSA checkpoints, which will no longer be needed; revamping transportation routes around the exterior of the airport; and miscellaneous efforts to tie up loose ends.
Potter praised staff, contractors and airlines using the facilities, who “always made sure construction activities co-existed” with passengers who needed to wend their way to and from gates.
“Everyone worked together to transform the passenger experience,” Potter said, adding that with passenger counts likely to be significant during the holiday period, “these new facilities couldn’t have come at a better time.”