At their July 17 meeting, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board members were briefed by chief capital development officer Roger Natsuhara on the status of a number of key projects at Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles International airports.
• The master-planning process for future airport development at Dulles is moving along and currently is in the environmental-analysis stage. A preferred design is likely to be released for public review before the end of the year.
• Plans for replacement of Terminal 1 at Reagan National are moving forward in consultation with Southwest Airlines, the largest tenant in the 1960s-era ancillary terminal. Construction is slated to begin during the 2026-27 time frame.
• Plans for a temporary, two-story parking garage to go above existing surface parking in the long-term lot at Reagan National are moving ahead, with design slated for completion in November and a contract inked at the beginning of 2025.
The work, slated to cost $40 million and take about a year, will add about 1,500 parking spaces. It is a necessary precursor to beginning major renovation of the airport’s roadway configuration.
“It’s critical for us to get this done,” Natsuhara said.
• Ongoing efforts at resurfacing two runways at Reagan National are “tracking well” and are likely to be wrapped up on schedule sometime before winter sets in. To date, about 74 percent of the nearly 180,000 tons of asphalt and pavement has been laid.
The foundation underneath multiple levels of runway asphalt dates back to the airport’s opening in 1941 and remains in good shape, authority officials have said.
Those were just some of the projects Natsuhara ticked off to authority board members.
“We’ve got a lot ahead of us,” acknowledged authority board member William Sudow (Virginia).
