(WOWT) -- It’s time to polish your ground game before you take to the air. Thursday brought day-one of a two-year project to improve parking at Eppley Airfield. Fasten your seat belts.
The blueprint promises a bright future but this is the egg-breaking part of the omelet-making. Plan on some diversions along the way and build-in some extra time to catch your flights.
The new parking plan dates back to a 2013 Master Plan that showed Eppley needed more close-in parking. That set the stage for the new six-story parking garage now in progress.
The new facility will offer parking to 3,000 vehicles. The idea is to put in public parking on levels three to six. The first few levels will be for rental cars.
A heated walkway will connect the terminal and parking – a welcome addition to your winter travels. They’ll also be adding a new rental car customer service center right next to the new garage.
But as the metamorphosis progresses, we’re going to confront some buggy navigation. If you normally park in the surface lot, the one just north of the current parking garage, you'll have to find a new spot. That was set to close as of 9 p.m. Thursday.
And the newer canopy lot right next door to the south long-term parking lot will now be the temporary housing for rental cars. That change begins on May 9.
That leaves the north and south long-term parking lots and the current parking garage available. In addition there are two new lots available for anyone waiting to pick up passengers – the so-called cell phone lots.
Click here to visit Eppley's online parking guide.