President Donald Trump shared plans on Wednesday for a massive, $22 billion construction and renovation project at Washington Dulles International Airport.
The president, who’s pushing forward on projects to revamp iconic sites around Washington, D.C., showcased a scale model and pictures of the proposed new hub that would do away with the infamous “people movers,” add thousands of parking stalls and replace entire terminals.
“We are announcing plans to add more than 5 million square feet of new or renovated space,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We’ll replace the current C and D concourses, which are basic disasters, all the while preserving the iconic original terminal.”
The architect Eero Saarinen completed the original terminal in 1962, the same year the airport, about 25 miles west of Washington, opened. The terminal’s iconic mid-century modern architecture features concrete columns and a concave cable roof.
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Trump described Saarinen as “one of the great architects of the world,” but said the original terminal was both an “asset and a liability” because “nobody wanted to build anything near it.”
The airport could also get a new 32,000-space parking garage, which Trump said will be the largest in the world. The current largest parking complex is in Edmonton, Canada, with parking for about 20,000 vehicles.
United Airlines, which has a major hub at Dulles, described the timeline for the project as being completed “over the next decade.” Construction could start in the spring.
The project proposes do away with the fleet of people movers, which function like buses, transporting flyers between terminals.
“It’s an impossible airport. You get off a bus, you go into a train, you get from a train, you get onto another bus,” Trump said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a “horseshoe train system” would replace the people movers and provide travelers with “easy access to all of your gates.”
The administration reviewed designs from more than 30 architects, and the president described the project as a “bipartisan” effort.
“Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, you don’t want to go and be subjected to this airport because this airport, it’s a terrible place to be,” Trump said.
United Airlines will help pay for the project, which is set to include the largest United Polaris lounge in the world, according to Trump.
“This is not requiring federal dollars,” Jack Potter, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, told reporters. “This is going to be airport-generated dollars, airline contributions — which is phenomenal.”
Trump said doing the airport construction “all at one time” would allow the project to be completed in a few years, far less than the original 60-year estimate if it was broken up into stages.
“It’s time to ensure that the United States has the greatest airports anywhere in the world, and we’re starting right here with the capital city,” Trump said.
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