RAPID CITY, SD (KOTA) – Rapid City Regional Airport is set to go through a multi-phase construction project that will update everything from the ticket counters to expanding the gate areas.
Construction on the Rapid City Regional Airport began in October 2023, working on an area that will help ease the pressure that is put on the ticketing counters, the baggage processing, as well as updating the TSA checkpoint.
“So phase one of the terminal project is to add on to the head house, the head house being the main area of the terminal, the place where we process bags, once they are, once the passengers check into the ticket counters. “It’s also going to add some ticket counter space and then add additional space, up to the TSA checkpoint, we’re going to relocate that to the new section of the building,” said Patrick Dame, executive director for Rapid City Regional Airport.
The full renovation and expansion of the airport was broken into multiple projects, and due to some financial discrepancies, some parts of the project had to be broken up and some areas were lost.
“So we’ve consistently been going through and trying to size the project making changes to the project as we’ve needed. We were going to put an addition on to gate one as part of Project One, we’ve since removed that addition. “We also simplified some of the baggage system in an effort to try again and reduce costs in places where we can,” Dame explained.
Dame says they adjusted plans and even removed some temporary buildings that airport officials had wanted to build to help sort baggage. He says it’s all in an effort to save costs.
“Based on that, we had to eliminate those, that building, that carousel and make this area work for the continued operations of the airport. We needed to save those funds, so we did what we could to cut where we needed to,” Dame continued.
Phase one of project one is expected to take about 18 months, and the entire renovation is expected to take the better part of the next decade to complete.
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