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Copyright 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.  
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

July 25, 2000, Tuesday, FIVE STAR LIFT EDITION

SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1

LENGTH: 642 words

HEADLINE: GEPHARDT ASKS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO PROMOTE SPEEDY CONSTRUCTION OF LAMBERT;
TERMINAL

BYLINE: Ken Leiser; Of The Post-Dispatch

BODY:


House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt is urging the nation's transportation czar to look at how the federal government can speed up construction of a new Lambert Field terminal.

Gephardt, D-St. Louis County, met Monday with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater in Washington to talk about a wide range of transportation issues -- including the timing and funding of a proposed terminal.

Trans World Airlines, Lambert's biggest tenant, insists it won't benefit from the future 9,000-foot parallel runway without additional gates because the airline has reached its capacity at Lambert, its domestic hub.
 
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So the city, the airline and others are talking about ways to accelerate construction of a new terminal -- or other options -- to coincide with the 2006 opening of the runway, airline officials say.

"Timing is the issue," Gephardt said in an interview last weekend. "I believe that we can achieve the building of the new terminal almost simultaneous with the new runway. It may lag by a matter of months, but it won't be a matter of years."

He wants Slater to "do everything that the federal government can possibly do," including possibly making available funds from the Aviation Trust Fund, to speed up construction of a terminal.

Under the $ 40 billion aviation bill Congress passed earlier this year, the Federal Aviation Administration has "more revenue in the trust fund that can be used in a discretionary way to help situations like this," Gephardt said.

The bill also permits airports to increase the passenger facility charges they can charge from $ 3 per flight to $ 4.50.

How to time and pay for a new terminal was actually more of a peripheral issue of a meeting that focused more on the U.S. transportation department's priorities for the remainder of the year and its rules on issues such as trucker fatigue.
 
Gephardt spokesman Ed Rhode said "they had a great talk."

While such meetings are not rare, the fact that the ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives and the nation's transportation chief are talking about Lambert Field is significant.

The potential new terminal is a major topic for ailing TWA, which concluded long ago that it needs upgrades to its existing terminal gates in the short term and ultimately more gates to benefit from expansion.

The St. Louis-based air carrier has 45 fully operational gates at Lambert and ultimately will need as many as 20 more.

"Nothing has changed as far as we are concerned," said TWA spokesman Mark Abels. "Expanded and improved terminal capacity is necessary to go along with runway expansion."

St. Louis and TWA are still talking about the timing of new terminal facilities -- which are now banished to later phases of the $ 2.6 billion W-1W expansion project.

No location has been chosen. Abels said the existing airport master plan shows a mid-field terminal, near TWA's training center at Lindbergh Boulevard and Natural Bridge Road.
 
But a new terminal could require an additional environmental review.

A December 1997 environmental study done for the expansion project referenced only new terminal facilities west of the existing Main Terminal at the site of the Missouri Air National Guard facility.

"It is just too premature to be addressing" the issue of location, cost and timing of a new terminal because discussions are still at a preliminary stage," said airport spokesman Mike Donatt.
 
That isn't the only obstacle.

In a memo that was circulated around St. Louis City Hall several months ago, the city concluded it would be "very difficult and costly" to issue bonds to finance a new terminal.

But earlier this month, St. Louis Mayor Clarence Harmon said he thought the construction of the runway and terminal could be timed closer together to benefit the air carrier.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO Color PHOTO headshot - (Rep. Richard) Gephart
Lobbies for Lambert

LOAD-DATE: July 25, 2000