The gleaming expansion of Terminals D and E at Philadelphia International Airport has been open since December 2008: Fancy shops, ultramodern passenger screening, additional airline gates.
But completion of the project - now estimated to cost $341 million, up from an initial $185 million in 2005 - is mired in construction lawsuits and finger-pointing.
Reams of court papers have been filed, and the case is headed for trial before Common Pleas Court Judge Mark I. Bernstein. No date has been set.
When the 204,000-square-foot "connector" building opened between Concourses D and E, with 14 lanes of passenger security screening, more construction was to follow.
In spring 2009, an automated baggage-handling system was to be ready one floor below the passenger-security area. Soon after, new ticket counters and a combined D-E ticketing building were to be built, as well as offices for the airlines based in D and E - Southwest, Air Tran, Delta, Northwest, United, and Continental.
But 21/2 years later, it hasn't happened.
The explosives-detection luggage system, although installed, is not yet operational. The system, designed to screen outbound bags at a rate of 750 an hour, has still not passed the performance testing required by the Transportation Security Administration.
Until the baggage system is up and running, ticket counters and offices cannot be built. Delta Air Lines employees are using a modular trailer on the sidewalk outside its ticketing area as their break room.
The lawsuits attribute the delays, costs, and failure to get work done to "change orders," revisions to TSA security mandates, and contractors that did not do what they were supposed to do.
The renovations are paid for by airport revenue bonds funded by the airlines and "passenger facility charges," a $4.50 departure tax imposed on every passenger traveling through the airport that is used for Federal Aviation Administration-approved projects.
Experts say the way public construction projects are bid in Pennsylvania adds to inefficiency and drives up cost. State law requires that cities and public agencies seek multiple independent "prime" contractor bids, rather than awarding all work to a single contractor responsible for hiring building-trades contractors.
