New airport highway signs

BY ED FELIEN

“Where’s my plane?”
Have you ever driven to the airport and just as you’re almost there you begin to wonder, “Which airport? Lindbergh or Humphrey?” Twenty- to thirty-thousand people every year go to the wrong airport, according to Metropolitan Airports Commission estimates.

Flying is nerve-wracking enough without having to get upset about the location of the proper airport. More than 40 signs will be added or replaced along approaches to the airport on Interstate 494, Highway 5, Highway 62 and 34th Avenue to address what has become a significant customer service issue.

In the past, highway regulations prevented installation of signs listing airline names by terminal due to concerns over the amount of information the signs needed to convey. Last year, however, the Metropoltan Airports Commission gained approval from state and federal highway officials after agreeing to split the airline names among three separate signs and to identify the terminals by number rather than by historic names. On the new signs, the Lindbergh Terminal will be identified only as Terminal 1 and the Humphrey Terminal as Terminal 2. Officially, the terminals will retain their historic names, however, and be designated elsewhere as Terminal 1-Lindbergh and Terminal 2-Humphrey.

Due to a favorable bidding environment, the price tag for the much needed project is $1.4 million—about $800,000 less than estimated. The Metropolitan Airports Commission will use its own funds—not state or federal tax dollars—to pay for the improvements.