The State is ready to roll, at last, with some of those capital improvements at Honolulu International Airport that were (delayed) a whole year by its dispute with the airlines.
Simultaneously, the Transportation Department is close to concluding a contract for professional guidance in master planning the airport to handle the jumbo and supersonic jetliners due less than four years hence.
Airport development funds were unfrozen this month when the airlines completed the formalities of withdrawing their law suits against the State’s handling of levies on the carriers.
That action followed agreement by the State to revise its system of computing and assessing the landing fees through which the airlines finance capital improvements at Hawaii’s airports.
For the time being, the State is expected to move ahead with only a portion of the more than
$1 million worth of work for which money is now available. Likeliest immediate projects include:
>> Widening, strengthening and better marking taxiways.
>> Installation of stainless steel shelves in the public restroom.
>> Extensive landscaping.
>> Moving of the old Murrayair Hangar 6 skeleton to the ewa end of the field where it, together with Hangar 4, will be repaired and made available for leave.
>> Creation (of) a VIP room in the garden area of the terminal where dignitaries can meet the press and await their flights.
The moving sidewalk, for which the Legislature has appropriated $240,000, will be held up at least temporarily until the State can decide which type of conveyor is the most practical.
Meanwhile, the State has been negotiating with Leigh Fisher Associates, a respected aviation consulting firm headquartered in San Francisco, to help with long-range master plans, not only for Honolulu International, but the entire statewide airport system.
Leigh Fisher would be expected to eye each interim project as well as come up with an overall long-range grand design by late next year.
If the consultant and the State can agree on terms, a contract may be signed within 30 days. The State had $250,000 available for such purpose.
Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar
