TPA celebrates Red Express Curbsides milestone with 'topping out' event
Construction partners Hensel Phelps and Aviation Authority leaders mark the final year of work on Phase 2 projects at the Airport with a traditional ceremony to sign a steel beam.
Leaders from Tampa International Airport and construction partners Hensel Phelps gathered on July 12 to celebrate entering the final year of work on the Airport’s current Main Terminal Curbside Expansion.
Executives and employees of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority joined officials from the construction firm to sign one of the final steel beams that will be placed in the underlying structure of the Red Express Curbsides building.
This “topping out” ceremony is a major milestone in the project, which also includes and expanded third level in TPA’s Main Terminal and the shuttle station for the future Airside D.
The Red Express Curbsides will mirror the award-winning Blue Express Curbsides that opened in November 2021. The Express Curbsides allow travelers who are not checking bags and have electronic boarding passes to skip the Ticketing Level and head straight to their gate from the third level of the Main Terminal.
“We’re bringing that award-winning design to the Red Side, adding a matching set of Express Curbsides and growing our Main Terminal,” Airport CEO Joe Lopano said. “That’s all happening right now, right where you stand.”
Lopano thanked the team at TPA and Hensel Phelps and its parteners, plus the Airport Marriott, which has been adjacent to the project.
Construction on the Red Side first required the removal of the Airport’s 1970s-era Administration Building, then adding four new Arrivals lanes and four new Departures lanes, plus a new Express Curbsides building.
The event marked the final year of construction for Phase 2 of the Airport’s three-phase Master Plan, a blueprint for managing growth at TPA that was conceived in 2012. Other Phase 2 projects that have been completed include the Airport’s new Central Utility Plant and SkyCenter One office complex.
The Main Terminal Curbside Expansion is scheduled to be completed in Summer 2025.
Phase 3 is the construction of the 16-gate Airside D, which is due to break ground later this year and open to the public in 2028.
