Moving walkways begin to arrive as upgrades to Long Term Parking Garage continue
The project will make it easier to reach the Main Terminal and will clear space for hundreds of new parking spaces once completed.
Tampa International Airport has taken a couple of big steps toward completing the moving walkways under construction in the Long Term Parking Garage.
Earlier this month, the Airport received the first pair of 12 walkways to be installed on Level 4 of the garage. Another pair is due to be delivered in September.
The machinery, similar to the moving walkways on the first floor of the Economy Parking Garage, will be installed across the full length of the east and west sides of Level 4 near the elevator banks.
Passengers who leave their cars in the Long Term Parking Garage will be able to reach the Main Terminal much more quickly and easily than before by taking the walkways from any of the elevators on Level 4.
The garage upgrade has been delayed because the China-based company manufacturing the machinery for the moving walkways was closed for several weeks because of COVID-19-related shutdowns. Due to the delay, the walkways are now scheduled to be completed in mid-2023.
Meanwhile, all of Level 7 of the Long Term Parking Garage remains closed as crews dismantle the decommissioned passenger monorail shuttles and track. The 20-plus-year-old system, which had seen declines in ridership in recent years and would have needed major and costly upgrades to keep operating, was shut down in 2021.
After the monorail is gone from Level 7 in the Long Term Parking Garage, crews will then remove the system’s infrastructure from Levels 4 and 5 of the Short Term Parking Garage.
The changes will eventually provide almost 500 new parking spaces on those levels.
Work on the monorail removal is due to be completed in mid-2024. The total cost of the walkway installation and monorail removal project is $30.4 million and is part of the Airport’s Capital Improvement Program.
[Photos courtesy of Manhattan Construction Co.]