Barely opened, D terminal set for expansion

Adrienne Packer

Monday, Jan. 31, 2000 | 11:24 a.m.

The first step of a $120 million expansion of McCarran International Airport's newest terminal is expected to be approved this week.

Just as airlines settle into McCarran's new D terminal, aviation officials embark on a project that will expand the state-of-the-art facility by between nine and 11 gates.

The Clark County Commission is expected on Tuesday to approve the hiring of a firm to study the project's environmental impact.

The environmental studies are expected to take a year, and construction is scheduled to begin in June 2001, Hilarie Grey, airport media relations manager, said.

The new wing to the D terminal should open in spring 2003.

The new leg of the terminal, which will run to the northeast, will take between three and five years to complete. It is one of two new wings planned for the D gates, Grey said.

When the current D terminal was completed in 1998, it was Y-shaped. When the entire project is finished, Grey said, the layout will be X-shaped.

"We keep growing at such an amazing rate that we have to keep planning ahead," Grey said.

Already 33 million passengers pass through McCarran every year -- about a 60 percent increase since 1990, Grey said.

Along with the D terminal expansion, the airport is planning a new $175 million terminal for international flights. The amount of international traffic -- now about 1 million passengers a year -- is increasing by 18 percent annually. The airport anticipates that number will increase further with the addition of nonstop flights to London in June, she said.

When the expansion projects are completed, the airport expects to accommodate 45 million passengers a year. According to county reports, the D terminal expansion won't affect just the airport, but also a Nevada Power Co. substation and several nearby homes.

In preparation of the two new legs, Nevada Power must move a substation near Maryland Parkway and Russell Road. The company is building a replacement on 2.5 acres on Eastern Avenue between Russell and Oquendo roads.

According to a county report, 22 homes along Russell Road will be demolished to make room for the new substation. Grey said the county anticipated its expansion long ago and has been vacating the homes.

"The airport has been acquiring homes because of the noise," she said.