Construction to Start at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on Expanded Center for Shuttles, Limos
CLEVELAND, Ohio – A $3-million project to improve passenger access to shuttle and limousine services is slated to start Wednesday at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
The project involves construction of an expanded Ground Transportation Center capable of handling many vehicles at a time. Walkways for passengers to access pickup points will be under cover and heated in bad weather.
The airport has set an aggressive schedule for the project, Director Robert Kennedy has said. Kennedy wants the center open before the Thanksgiving travel season picks up in November.
The structure will be at the north end of the terminal, where a temporary site has been in use for a year, out the door from the baggage claim area on the terminal’s lower level.
Plans for the new center show nearly a dozen pickup points for shuttles, all under shelter. Limousines will have a separate area large enough to handle 20 vehicles at a time.
Upgrading that temporary center will require some site work. A loading dock will be filed in. Some utilities will need to be relocated. And a new guardhouse with license plate readers that record how many trips shuttle and limo vendors make to the center will be constructed.
Primary Road, which leads to the site, will be closed during construction to allow for utility replacement. Access to the adjacent Red and Blue parking areas will be maintained.
Ultimately, shuttles will be able to pull into one of three covered aisles to make their pickups and pull straight out to exit. Limo areas, and the adjacent Red Lot for parking, will be accessible via a covered walkway.
Cleveland’s Ozanne Construction Co. is the contractor for the project.
The project is important, Kennedy has said, because the center helps to shape travelers’ lasting image of the city.
While the center is under construction, shuttle and limo operations will be moved back to the old transportation site adjacent to the parking garage across from the terminal.
That site opened in 2016, when the airport was making terminal renovations and shuttle buses for hotels and off-site parking were relocated from the main terminal curb.
Travelers, though, complained about the lack of shelter and that they had to navigate a pair of escalators to get from the baggage area to their shuttles and limos.
In 2019, the airport told Uber, Lyft and limo drivers they would no longer be able to make curbside pickups and drop-offs in front of the terminal and would have to start using the Ground Transportation Center. The airport also raised the fees those companies pay for operating at the airport.
Passengers and transportation providers complained loudly about the cost and the move. In response, the airport rescinded the changes for the ride-sharing services.
That’s also when Hopkins opened the temporary site for shuttles and limos to allow upgrades to the previous ground transportation center.
Feedback from passengers showed they viewed that temporary location as more convenient. The airport acknowledged that preference last September, announcing it would abandon plans to upgrade the old site near the parking garage and instead build new at the temporary location.
The changes will not affect taxi services, which will continue to pick up passengers at the south end of the terminal. The free cell phone parking area, so named because it allows drivers to wait for arriving passengers until they call to be picked up, will also be unaffected.
More from Cleveland City Hall
———
©2020 Advance Ohio Media, Cleveland
Visit Advance Ohio Media, Cleveland at www.cleveland.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
