Atlanta Airport Begins $1.3B Facelift

The busiest airport in the world just keeps getting bigger. In what will be a complex construction project, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is widening Concourse D to allow for more passengers and larger planes. The project is expected to cost $1.3 billion.

The project will use a modular building approach. Nineteen modules will be built at a site on Sullivan Road and then transported to Concourse D for installation. The strategy hopes to minimize impacts to airport operations. 

Concourse D opened in 1980 as one of the five original concourses at the domestic terminal. Today, it has a circulation corridor of 18 feet and has seating for 5,400 passengers.

The widening project will expand the corridor 29 feet and raise the ceiling by 18 feet. It will increase the amount of seating to 6,400 and double the size of restrooms.

The number of gates will decrease to 34 to accommodate the larger airplanes that airlines are now flying.