It’s a wrap on the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport’s central terminal, once a laughing stock of American infrastructure.
Gov. Hochul cut the ribbon on the final phase of the airport’s Terminal B on Thursday, capping off the $4 billion project.
Sections of the shiny new space have opened piecemeal in recent years, with the first of its new gates opening to travelers in 2018. With work on a pedestrian bridge connecting the terminal’s western concourse to its main headhouse finished, officials said the new space was fully open for business.
“That was the final piece of the puzzle that allows us to say that we’re done,” Hochul said.
Construction crews must still finish the demolition of the old facilities that Terminal B replaces, a project officials said would be finished later this year.
The 1.3 million square-foot terminal has 35 gates used by Southwest, United, American, JetBlue and Air Canada. The space’s central hall has a floor-to-ceiling art installation that shines lasers against a cascading waterfall.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization named the terminal the “best new airport in the world,” said Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton.
The completion of the terminal comes nearly eight years after President Biden – then vice president — chided LaGuardia’s decrepit condition.
“If I took you and blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York, you’d think, ‘I must be in some third-world country,’” Biden said during a 2014 speech on American infrastructure.
New York officials said that’s no longer the case — and Port Authority officials claim the final piece of the airport’s redevelopment would be finished before the summer. That project is a separate $4 billion redevelopment of Terminals C and D that combines both into a single space.
“I wish I had a blindfold,” said Hochul. “We’re going to invite President Biden here and when he takes off the blindfold and sees this he’ll know that we listened.”
LaGuardia is still the only major airport in the New York City area without a rail link. Hochul in October nixed plans by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to build a LaGuardia AirTrain, which would have required travelers to pay a second fare to transfer from the subway or Long Island Rail Road at a new station in Willets Point, Queens.
Port Authority officials are studying alternative transit links to the airport, including an extension of the N train from Astoria, which would offer straphangers a one-seat ride to LaGuardia.
“We are looking at alternatives in terms of improving mass transit options to the airport,” said Cotton. “We’ve brought in three world-renowned transportation experts.”
The construction of Terminal B has upset some nearby residents in recent years, who claim the impact from pile drivers to build the new facility damaged their homes.
“We’re making up for a lot of mistakes of the past, and also remind everyone there are communities that are affected by these projects and they deserve a seat at the table,” Hochul said.
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