The Importance of Analysis in Airport Construction: Insights from LaGuardia's Redevelopment Program

Abstract: New York City’s three major airports have gone or are undergoing major redevelopment programs to support the growing and evolving passenger demand for the next several decades. Due to the significance of LaGuardia Airport (LGA), JFK International Airport (JFK), and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to the economic and social fabric of the New York City Region, a focal directive of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) is to maintain airport operations and ground access during the entire construction periods. Each of the airport’s landside transportation networks is composed of roadway facilities and public transit services, and they serve as the direct gateway to the local cities and communities that the airports serve.

The airport landside transportation network is a sensitive ecosystem for which a minor disruption in a certain facet may result in cascading impacts throughout the system. The challenges that face the PANYNJ include balancing the need to progress (and at times, accelerate) the construction of new roadways and transit facilities while maintaining access, egress, and connectivity within the airport boundaries to minimize travel delay. This may involve the temporary closure or redirection of traffic and pedestrian flows, which requires planning and analysis to understand the magnitude of potential impacts and identify feasible mitigation strategies.

LaGuardia Airport experienced significant construction activity that impacted the roadway network for several years between 2016 and 2022. During this time, the PANYNJ strategically and proactively developed and implemented several plans and processes designed to identify, assess, monitor, and mitigate traffic-related issues that may arise. The foundation for these plans and processes are the vehicular and pedestrian data and analyses that provide insight into the feasibility of a proposed new roadway configuration or a reroute of traffic around an active construction site. Data and traffic modeling were critical to help progress discussions and guide decisions on geometric and operational changes with the least potential impacts on the driver, pedestrian, and passenger population.

With the PANYNJ embarking on major redevelopment programs for the other major two airports of the New York City region, vehicular and pedestrian data and transportation capacity modeling remain at the forefront in the planning stages of each major construction phase and the development of the final landside transportation layout. The lessons learned from LGA are implemented in the JFK and EWR redevelopment programs and highlight the importance of collecting relevant data to assess baseline conditions and project and asses proposed scenarios. The analysis approach must be prioritized accordingly to accurately, efficiently, and expeditiously measure the impacts of construction activities on the transportation network due to the larger magnitude and complexities of EWR and JFK compared to LGA. The lessons learned from LGA will only serve as a foundation since JFK and EWR offer their unique characteristics, and the lessons learned have to be adapted and evolved to meet the individual challenges these airports present.