Rapid City Regional Airport has completed the preliminary design phase of an estimated $4 million concourse expansion that would create additional space for security screenings and holding areas for passengers waiting to board flights.

Mason Short, airport director, said the screening checkpoint currently is at its operational limit and needs more room.

"We can't put any more people through that point than we do right now, and we only have one checkpoint," he said.

The expansion will create enough room for two side-by-side checkpoints as well as space to add a third check lane in the future if necessary to meet demand.

Short said another need is more gate waiting areas and restrooms. The expansion will create 3,000 square feet of new passenger waiting area and 5,000 square feet of additional storage space for the airlines.

"One of the things were dealing with is multiple aircraft departures at the same time. That's leading us to these space expansions," he said.

Widening the security checkpoint area will result in the loss of the area on the second floor of the terminal where people wait for passengers to exit airplanes. Short said as a result, the airport is at an early stage of talking about reconfiguring the restaurant area to make it a more inviting place to wait.

The idea is to tear down some of the restaurant's interior walls to create a more open-air feel, and also improve views.

"We want to make this a more inviting place to eat, and increase the visibility of the apron (tarmac) and the Black Hills, so people can see the beautiful vistas of the Hills as well as watch airplanes come in," Short said.

Short isn't sure when the restaurant project will happen, but the concourse expansion is scheduled to be fully designed this summer, go out for bids in late fall and possibly start construction as early as January or February of 2009.

Short said the airport plans to issue bonds to pay for the project and use revenue received from passenger facility charges to repay the bonds. Passenger facility charges are fees tacked on to every airline ticket collected by airports passengers travel through.

In Rapid City, the fee generates about $1 million per year and can only be used for eligible projects as determined by the Federal Aviation Administration. Rapid City normally uses the charge as local matching dollars on any federal grants it receives.

"Instead of using local tax dollars, we use passenger facility charges," Short said. "There's not a burden on people in town who never use the airport. There are no local tax dollars that go into the airport. We are self-sufficient."

Other airport projects on the horizon include building a new fire station to replace one currently in the old terminal building, relocating an electrical vault that controls all of the airport's lights, expanding the taxiway and apron, and new baggage screening devices.

"We're in the process of completing an airport master plan, which delineates about $130 million worth of capital improvement projects over the next 20 years," Short said.

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415, or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com.