Several moving walkways set to be removed at McCarran airport
Eight moving walkways located at the A and B gates in Terminal 1 at McCarran International Airport are set to be removed.
The decision to remove the walkways boils down to maintenance cost, according to airport spokesman Joe Rajchel.
“The equipment in those walkways is quite outdated, to the point where ongoing operations became cost-prohibitive,” Rajchel said. “It makes more sense to remove them than to spend the money on maintenance.”
At Tuesday’s Clark County Commission meeting, a contract for the removal is set to be awarded to the lowest responsive bidder, Taylor International Corp. The work tied to the removal is not to exceed $2.98 million, according to county documents.
The scope of the contract includes removing the walkways, installing terrazzo flooring in place of the walkways and building new electrical and data infrastructure for future use. Terrazzo is flooring with chips of marble, quartz, granite and glass that give it a glitzy shine.
After the removal, multiple moving walkways will continue to operate at McCarran. Those are located at the sky bridge that connects the B and C concourses, just past the C and D checkpoint that takes travelers to the C Concourse if they choose not to use the tram, the D Concourse and in Terminal 3. There are no imminent plans to remove any of the remaining walkways, Rajchel noted.
Work on the removal is slated to begin in early 2022 with crews working to mitigate effects on travelers as the project is carried out.
“The current plans call for the project to be done in phases and for the construction barriers to be as close to the walkways as possible to reduce the impact on traffic flow,” Rajchel said.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.