By Anish Abraham
UPGRADING the parking areas at Johannesburg International Airport has inconvenienced motorists, but the airport operator says steps are being taken to minimise the problem.
According to Jacqui O'Sullivan, the communications manager at the airport, two projects to renovate the basement parking and the parkade would - unfortunately - affect airport users.
Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa), which runs the country's major airports, is waterproofing and upgrading the basement parking area that serves the international terminals.
The waterproofing will solve a long-standing seepage problem. In addition, the company is revamping the basement parking by improving lighting, signage and vehicle flow.
"To effect these changes, up to 200 bays at a time need to be closed off, which obviously impacts on the amount of parking available," O'Sullivan said.
The parking shortage has been compounded by the loss of a staff parking area, known as Shade 3, which was closed to enable construction of the new Echo Apron.
An apron is the part of the paved area of an airport set aside for loading, unloading or maintaining parked aircraft. The new apron will be able to hold the world's largest commercial aircraft, the Airbus A380, which is expected to enter service towards the end of 2006.
Staff members who used those spaces now have to use parking bays in an area called Shade 2. This was formerly used for public parking but is now reserved for airport staff.
"The basement upgrade and the delivery of the new multi-storey parkade will both be completed towards the end of 2007," O'Sullivan said. "If weather and other construction influences work in our favour, our engineers hope to deliver slightly ahead of schedule, possibly in the middle of 2007."
Until then, however, Acsa will identify extra parking space within existing facilities and post additional signage to help vehicle movement around the construction sites.
The company is also working on new parking technology and new payment methods to help make airport parking payments more user friendly.
"The improvements to the international terminals as well as the additional parkade and the development of the Central Terminal Building will ensure Johannesburg International Airport has a construction-free, world class facility when our World Cup visitors start flooding into our country," O'Sullivan concluded.
|
Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as:
|
