Nashville International Airport Development thread

[TheRaglander]

9 hours ago, PillowTalk4 said:

 

Quite honestly, I've never seen a baggage claim area that was really appealing.  They typically are the most utilitarian part of an airport that travelers see.  I'd rather have more efficiency in the area and delivery than décor.   One thing that I hated about Nashville's old luggage claim area was the lack of space between carousels.  BWI and DCA (which I fly out the most) have really good spaced out carousels.  Rarely do you have people from different flights tripping over each other. 

People in the DC area airports, BWI, DCA and IAD have all been complaining about the amount of time it's taking to get their luggage.  All three airports in this area contribute it to personnel shortages and flight delays.

Totally agree.  Except for the Vegas airport's baggage claim.  My wife still can't get over the massive "Thunder from Down Under" billboard they have looking over the people. 

[Skyscrapergeek]

[downtownresident]

Airport Passenger Numbers are out for July.

Here's link to the report: https://flynashville.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/072021TotalPassengers.pdf

Total of 1,700,159 passengers. This is up 174.5% over 2020, and up 1.3%, a total of 21,994 passengers vs. July 2019!

Very happy to see growth vs. 2019 numbers. Hopefully that trend continues the rest of the year. 

 

[markhollin]

Dec. 1987 to May 1990 difference at BNA when runway 2R/20L was added:

 

[Chato_reyes]

A minor correction to my precious sleuthing... According to this tweet from Fraport, the "Vino" sign I noticed across from C-12 is not Vino Volo reincarnated, but "Vino Fiesta".  Nothing coming up in a few brief google searches so we'll just have to wait and see I suppose.

[Mr_Bond]

7 hours ago, markhollin said:

Dec. 1987 to May 1990 difference at BNA when runway 2R/20L was added:

2R/20L has just finished a 15-month complete overhaul per FAA regulations.  The ribbon cutting on the new runway is this Saturday morning, followed by the BNA 5K on the Runway race.  See y'all on the runway this Saturday!

[dmillsphoto]

BNA®’s Concourse D and Terminal Wings Named One of Nation’s “Best Design-Build Projects”

Design-Build Institute of America Ranks BNA® Vision Terminal Expansion Among “Most Impressive” Aviation Projects in 2021

 

https://flynashville.com/news/bnas-concourse-d-and-terminal-wings-named-one-of-nations-best-design-build-projects

[nashvylle]

I still cannot believe the bottleneck at BNA to get to terminal drop off from I40. It literally is one lane, for the most part, for all of the travelers. I realize there is another ingress that turns this one lane in to two, or three, but even at three lanes it is not enough. Then everyone is getting out of their cars and hugging each other... it's one major traffic jam.

Apologies if I missed, but I just looked at the BNA Vision. Assuming light rail isn't built in the next 10 years, if at all, is the status quo the plan for ingress/egress?

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by nashvylle

[PruneTracy]

1 minute ago, nashvylle said:

I still cannot believe the bottleneck at BNA to get to terminal drop off from I40. It literally is one lane, for the most part, for all of the travelers. I realize there is another ingress that turns this one lane in to two, or three, but even at three lanes it is not enough. Then everyone is getting out of their cars and hugging each other... it's one major traffic jam.

Apologies if I missed, but I just looked at the BNA Vision. Assuming light rail isn't built in the next 10 years, if at all, is the status quo the plan for ingress/egress?

The TARI (Terminal Access Roadway Improvements) project addresses this.

https://bnavisionnashville.com/site/web/assets/2017/01/Terminal-Access-Road-Improvements-Fact-Sheet-Apr-2018.pdf

The TDOT Donelson Pike DDI project also messes with the discrete access for the airport but TARI is the main project.

[nashvylle]

Thanks @PruneTracy

So if I have this correct, the TARI is represented by the lime green, and if that's correct, there are no plans to widen the existing bottle neck?

 

[PruneTracy]

48 minutes ago, nashvylle said:

So if I have this correct, the TARI is represented by the lime green, and if that's correct, there are no plans to widen the existing bottle neck?

The current plans widen the discrete access ramp to two 12' lanes (although it maintains the single added lane after merging with Terminal Drive).

Aside from that, the traffic utilizing the ramp should decrease as it won't be as difficult to access the terminal garage and lots from what is becoming Fly Nashville Way. This is the existing portion of Terminal Drive and new roadway that is bisecting the project; theoretically anyone needing to access the CONRAC, terminal garages, or any surface parking uses Fly Nashville Way instead of Terminal Drive and the discrete access ramp. The DDI also makes it easier to access these areas from Donelson Pike (except for lot C, but MNAA doesn't want people parking in the cheap lot anyway).

There are also wayfinding improvements, etc. that should improve traffic flow.

[LA_TN]

4 hours ago, nashvylle said:

Thanks @PruneTracy

So if I have this correct, the TARI is represented by the lime green, and if that's correct, there are no plans to widen the existing bottle neck?

 

The existing bottleneck should not be a bottleneck in the future. In addition to the points by @PruneTracythe unloading area will be lengthened, an additional lane added, and reconfigured. All these things combined will resolve the current issues.....by 2023

[Sean blackdog]

Today this morning from Facebook Sky5. 

[markhollin]

Chick-fil-A has received a $750,000 permit for construction of a store in the terminal, taking the place of a former Popeye's location. 

[Mr_Bond]

34 minutes ago, Sean blackdog said:

Today this morning from Facebook Sky5. 

 

I drove out to the airport this morning to pick up my packet for the race in the morning.  There were at least 10 trucks of various types on 2R/20L making the final preparations for the ribbon cutting in the morning at 7:30.  My wife and I will try to get some cool pics for this thread.

[jmtunafish]

8 hours ago, markhollin said:

Chick-fil-A has received a $750,000 permit for construction of a store in the terminal, taking the place of a former Popeye's location. 

[Chato_reyes]

Good luck to @Mr_Bondand all the other runners tomorrow!

[Sean blackdog]

Today early this morning from Facebook BNA. 
 

Good morning! The 2021 BNA® 5K on the Runway will happen rain or shine (unless there is lightning).

Click below to see how to get to #BNA5K parking in Google Maps.

Main race parking area: https://goo.gl/maps/XM9fQ9XSx4GQA4Wm9
 ADA accessible parking: 
https://goo.gl/maps/3FUBf5piSdKX9M4v9

Edited August 22, 2021 by Sean blackdog

[Sean blackdog]

Today this afternoon from Facebook BNA. 

 

Edited August 22, 2021 by Sean blackdog

[Mr_Bond]

Here are some pics from the BNA 5K on the Runway.  I picked up my race packet on Friday at 815 Hanger Lane.

And bought some swag.  When I go out for a run in The Gulch, all the tourists will think I'm cool. 

Below the stop sign it reads, "DO NOT PROCEED.  CONTACT ATC."  There was another sign on the first gate we drove through that read, "Violators will be arrested and prosecuted."

The rain stopped right we arrived around 6:45 AM and it started again around 9:30 AM as we were leaving.  Thank the good Lord!

This pic gives some perspective to where the race start line and other tents were set up at the south end of the runway.  Parking was on grass which quickly turned to mud to the east of the south end.  @Sean blackdog posted a map of where the parking was.

This pano really gives you some perspective.  The south end is to the left and you can see down the 2R runway to the right.  The tower is almost in the center and the terminal is to the right of center.

The big yellow X flashes consistently and there's another one at the other end of the runway.  These keep planes from inadvertently landing on this runway.  You can see the cranes at the terminal to the left of the X.  For some reason, people wanted to get their pics in front of the X.  The race course was the actual runway and taxiway.  To the side of the course were signs giving interesting facts about this runway.  The letters in this pic, "R" and "2", are 20' wide by 60' long.  There are 256,000 square feet of paint on the runway and taxiway.  One said that this runway can accommodate an Antonov An-225 cargo plane (I hope I remembered that correctly).

A little more perspective of one of the lights on the side of the runway with the terminal in the distance.  You can see three white stripes in this pic.  At each end of the runway are twelve stripes like those that go all the way across the runway.  Twelve stripes means the runway is 150' wide.

A shot looking north down the runway.  Notice the big numbers on the side of the runway, 7-6-5-4.  Landing on 2R from south to north, the numbers run from 8 down to 1.  If the plane goes past 1 it will run off the runway.  If landing on 20L from the other direction, the numbers also run from 8 to 1, meaning that the 7 in this pic has a 2 on the other side of it.

This shot was taken from the south side of the tents looking south.  You can see the red metal supports that house the pre-runway lights for planes landing on 2R.  To give you some perspective about the size of the light, I set my water bottle next to it.  The dog is a 4 month old Russian Tsvetnaya Bolonka named Truffle and he weighs about 6.5 pounds.  He is the perfect dog.

And to wrap things up, this is me pre-race getting some encouragement from Truffle.  No, he did not run with me but he is very fast.  He's more of a sprinter than a long distance runner.

Finally, it wouldn't be a Nashville road race without a celebrity sighting.  This is not a good pic but the man has a long, full beard and when he walked past me after the race he said, "I'm pretty tired.  I think I'll go home now."

Edited August 22, 2021 by Mr_Bond

[MLBrumby]

Forrest Gump was there?!?   I heard he's been spending a lot of time in the 'ville. 

Edited August 22, 2021 by MLBrumby

[Sean blackdog]

1 hour ago, MLBrumby said:

Forrest Gump was there?!?   I heard he's been spending a lot of time in the 'ville. 

[Mr_Bond]

3 hours ago, MLBrumby said:

Forrest Gump was there?!?   I heard he's been spending a lot of time in the 'ville. 

He had that look like "I've run in a lot of races.  It's what I do."  You can kind of tell the newbies from the veterans.

[Sean blackdog]

Today this morning from SimpleFlying. 
https://simpleflying.com/nashville-international-airport-holds-marathon-on-a-runway/amp/

Southwest is the biggest airline at Nashville Airport

 

[smeagolsfree]

I don’t think this has been posted. Also a 3D imagery model too.  https://bnavisionnashville.com/virtualtour/


Also, a brief video of Salt Lake City's new terminal: