Federal, state and local officials recently gathered at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania for the unveiling of a $35 million, 40,000-square-foot terminal and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint.
The new Americans with Disabilities Act compliant terminal replaces one built in the early 1970s. It features new vertical circulation equipment, a separation of outbound and inbound passenger flow, an air purification system and improved air circulation, new escalators and elevators, and a four-lane security checkpoint.
The checkpoint will implement the latest generation of TSA screening equipment.
Having four processing lanes will increase the airport’s capacity to the process passengers from 300 to 740 passengers per hour.
The federal Airport Terminal Program partially funded the project through a $5 million grant, bringing the total federal funding the airport has received since 2021 to more than $11.5 million.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visited the site during construction to monitor progress and emphasis the Biden Administration’s support.
“We have historic levels of funding now to repair our roads, fix our bridges, expand public transit, modernize ports, improve our airports, and make our infrastructure more resilient,” Buttigieg said.
Pennsylvania invested $13 million through the Commonwealth Finance Authority Multimodal Transportation Fund, the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, and Bureau of Aviation Capital Budget.