Transportation secretary commends job growth from Atlanta airport expansion

ATLANTA - Atlanta leaders celebrated a major milestone in the new Concourse D expansion at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Thursday.

Construction crews put the first of 19 modules into place overnight Tuesday into Wednesday.

"What an extraordinary feat of engineering it is to get that right," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

He sang Hartsfield-Jackson's and Atlanta's praises at Thursday's ceremony to commemorate the placement of the first module.

He was joined by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Balram "B" Bheodari, general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

As one of the oldest and narrowest concourses at the Airport, Concourse D has needed a major upgrade for years.

When the new concourse is complete, it will increase the square footage by 75%.

"It's more accessible to passengers with disabilities...that extra 30 feet of width, so you don't have to zigzag around other passengers to get to your gate. The thousand more seats mean more comfortable spots to wait for your flight. New restrooms double their previous size… And with that new concourse at the gates, it'll be able to accommodate a modern fleet of bigger aircraft that are coming and going every day," Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg also praised the number of jobs this will create.

"These upgrades also mean more opportunities for good paying jobs for everyone here," he said.

Crews are building the modules at a site about a mile away from the terminals.

Then they move the gigantic building blocks into place one at a time, at a speed of about 1.5 miles per hour.

They move it in the middle of the night to keep flight disruption to a minimum.

"That saves taxpayer money. It saves time. It means less disruption. It's really remarkable," Buttigeig said.

The Transportation Secretary says it's exactly the kind of project they wanted to fund with the $1 trillion infrastructure law passed in 2021.

Forty-million dollars of that is earmarked for Concourse D.

That may seem like a lot, but it’s a fraction of the $1.4 billion price tag.

"The $40 million, we think, made it possible to accelerate and advance this project, but certainly came alongside major contributions from Delta Air Lines and other entities all teaming up," Buttigieg said.

And while everyone celebrated, they also acknowledged this is just the first of many modules that they now have to slowly and carefully put into place.

"We got one down, 18 more to go, can't wait to see how it all continues," said Wayne Wadsworth, CEO of Holder Construction.

The construction crew plans to move another module into place each Tuesday until all are in place.

During this first phase, 8 gates of Concourse D have been closed.