13
January
2023
|
17:15 PM
Europe/Amsterdam

Airport Marriott hallway changing with work for Red Express Curbsides expansion

The new arrival and departure lanes are part of a major expansion on the Red Side of the Main Terminal, including retail space and the Airside D shuttle station.

TPA Marriott hallway barrier 011223

The next steps in Tampa International Airport’s planned expansion will soon head down a slightly narrower path.

As part of the construction for the forthcoming Red Express Curbsides and the Airport’s new Airside D shuttle station, crews will be blocking off portions of the walkway to the Airport Marriott hotel to begin major expansion work.

Visitors to the third floor of the Main Terminal will notice temporary walls that have gone up in the former Airport Arcade between Tech On-The-Go and the Sikorsky Elevators on the Red Side. Guests will still be able to walk to the Marriott via the lighted hallway.

TPA Marriott hallway banner 2 011223

The hotel is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and recently underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation of its meeting and event space.

In addition to connecting the third floor of the Main Terminal to the Marriott, the walkway to the hotel served as a gallery space for scale models that illustrated the Airport’s potential expansion plans. It also contained the Tony Jannus Award, which the Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society bestows annually to an individual for outstanding achievement in scheduled commercial aviation.

Those models, which were more than 10 years old, have been removed for cleaning and updating and will return in the coming weeks. The models and the trophy will be temporarily relocated to the second-floor space on the Ticketing level below the Main Terminal’s SkyConnect station.

The walls are scheduled to remain in place on the Red Side in some configuration until at least 2025. The areas blocked off by the barriers will change at times, and the hallway to the Marriot will eventually expand as phases of the work are completed.

“While the Airport began updating the Red Side of the Main Terminal last year, the biggest and best changes will be happening behind the scenes for now,” said Senior Manager of Construction Dan Seeley. “There are a lot of steps involved in this expansion, but most of our travelers likely won’t even notice the work being done until the improvements are ready for prime time.”

Demolition of the old, 1970s-era Administration Building will continue in the area below the walkway to make room for the new Red Express Curbsides, which will mirror the award-winning Blue Express Curbsides that opened in 2021.

Even bigger changes will eventually happen on the north side of the walkway, behind the Yeager Elevators.

The Main Terminal expansion will include the Airside D Shuttle Station, which will include two tracks for automated people movers to take passengers out to the future airside terminal. The shuttles, a signature feature of TPA’s Main Terminal/Airside design, will operate the same as the people movers that go to and from the existing airsides.

The Red Express Curbsides and Main Terminal expansion are expected to be finished in Summer 2025. The new Airside D is scheduled to open in early 2028.

All of the projects are part of the Airport’s 2022 Master Plan Update, the blueprint the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority is using to manage growth at TPA over the next two decades. Go here to learn more about the plan.

To see some renderings of what the completed expansion will look like, click on an image in the gallery below: