Introduction
The travel capacity of Lafayette Regional Airport is expected to expand significantly by the year 2034. Therefore, there is a need to expand its facilities to meet its increasing demand. In this paper, we investigate the a few requirements of Lafayette airport expansion. This will include primary and terminal access roads, terminal curb frontage, automobile parking facilities, warehouse/office facilities, cargo apron requirements, and air cargo acreage requirements.
4.5 AIRPORT ACCESS AND AUTOMOBILE PARKING REQUIREMENTS
4.5.1 Primary and Terminal Acess Roads
Terminal access roads serve airport passengers, visitors and employees and connect primary airport access roads with terminal building and parking. Primary airport access road should be able to accommodate at least 700 to 800 vehicles per hour per lane according to FAA recommendation. Terminal access lanes should be long enough for smooth channeling of traffic to the appropriate lane for safe access to terminal curb and parking lot. To avoid driver confusion, maximum of two choices is required at any location. If numerous building exist, it is appropriate to have more than one terminal road. The average speed should be twenty to twenty five miles per hour. The minimum lane width should be twelve feet sand a minimum of two lanes in each direction is provided. Terminal access roads are supposed to be clearly marked with the appropriate signs to allow easy access guide to respective areas. Marking also helps to avoid congestion and assures lesser traffic volume on every terminal frontage road (Brown, L et al, 2010. Lafayette airport plans to add an extension to the terminal as this will allow the airport to accommodate more air traffic. In addition, the terminal will enable the airport to benefit as it will act as a connecting airportand; hence, enticing international carries. Moreover the airport plans to construct a completely new terminal in future. Ingress and egress lanes of the access road should are provided with road section links to allow recirculation of vehicles to the passage terminal. Minimum of two twelve foot lane is required, and terminal access roads should be able to accommodate nine hundred to thousand vehicles per lane per hour. This should have an average speed limit of forty to fifty miles per hour (Brian, 2004).
4.5.2 Terminal Curb Frontage
A parking area at the terminal is necessary to allow loading and unloading of passages’ luggage. Whenever departure and arrival area are at the same level, FAA recommends at least four curb lanes. Inside curb lane provides terminal curb frontage which is considered to have no throughput capacity. Six hundred and three hundred vehicles should be accommodated in the terminal outer lane and inner lanes respectively in the design. The length of the terminal curb is dependent upon the assortment of the vehicle type plus the dwell time. Space length per minimum vehicle should be at least 25 linear feet. Ground transportation requirements peaks at a very short time when large volumes of passengers deplane with luggage. To control the curb parking slot occupancy rate, deployment of strict policing is effective. Sidewalk platform is located immediately next to curb lane and terminal building entrance to provide safe loading and unloading by passengers (U.S Department of Transportation, 1988). Traffic Curb Island is provided to increase curb area in hyperactivity airport. Curb area is usually physically divided into enplaning and deplaning areas, and this helps to reduce congestion. Overhead coverings are helps to protect disembarking passengers from intemperate weather. Terminal entrances are supposed to be at enplaning curbing areas and open straight into airline ticket counter foyers. Lafayette’s rental car area from the year 2024 to 2034 is set to expand by sixteen percent. Measures discussed above will help to cope with this increment (Ashford, Mumayiz & Wright, 2011).
* 70% (planning-assumed percentage of vehicles stopping at the curb) of Design Hours Passengers multiplied by 1.5 vehicles per design hour (planning-assumed rate of vehicles entering the terminal loop road)
** Vehicles Entering Curb Area divided by 15 cars/hour/space
*** Car Curb Spaces Required multiplied by 25 linear feet
4.5.3 Automobile Parking Facilities
Lafayette airport automobile parking facility provides space for passengers, visitors, workers and car hire agencies. The exit and entry points of the parking lots should be clearly labeled and separated to avoid confusion. A ticket dispensing, fee collection and queuing facility are appropriate at the parking entry to reduce congestion. Congestion and hazards are also minimized by way of counter clock wise circulation within the parking lot and one-way traffic control. Usually twenty percent total public spaces near the terminal are designated to short time parking and the rest of the space used for a long time parking. Public parking lot should be strategically positioned to limit the number of turns and the walking distance from parked automobile to the terminal, by a maximum of three hundred meters. Multilevel parking is usable to not only increase parking lot and reduce walking distance but, also as an inclement weather protection strategy (U.S Department of Transportation, 1983). Busy Lafayette airport may eventually require remote parking facility serviced by shuttle buses or people move systems. The estimated number of parking spaces is usually expanded by fifteen percent to reduce the time spent looking for a parking space. A parking plan should have three hundred to four hundred square feet, including lane, for each parked automobile is provided. Perpendicular parking is advantageous in that it allows parking from either side of the aisle. Layout of the parking aisle should be laid out in the direction of pedestrian-parker destination. However, parking layout depends on areas shape and some time on the parking habits locally. Employees parking area should be near their working areas and not close to the terminal (Rangwala & Rangwala, 2008).
The requirements for parking space were computed by considering a factor of 1.9 for each hour per passenger. Additionally, a passenger spends time searching for a parking space; therefore, a 15% increase was used for the calculation, hence raising the per design hour passenger factor from 1.9 to 2.185. Usually, 20% of parking spaces are for short-term parking while the remainder is allocated for long-term parking. Thus, more spaces will be required in the future for long-term parking. The requirements for rental spaces were based on if the parking lot is filled to capacity. Additionally, accounting for a percent of approximately 40% of returning cars was used to estimate increases. It was determined that each rental agency should have 50% space available for the total number of spaces. Employee spaces will be used for all employees at the airport including administration, rental employees, and other airline employees. Based on the number of passengers, it is expected that one employee parking space will be needed for each 2,000 passengers annually. The forecast for the parking requirements shown in Table 3 demonstrate that public parking space demand will grow throughout year 2034. Furthermore, there will also be increased demand for rental spaces and rental car storage. This means that the existing car parking lots must be expanded to account for the expected growths.
* Design Hour Passengers multiplied by 2.185 spaces per design hour passenger (applies to 2014 to 2034 figures)
** Annual Emplaned Passengers divided by 2,000 passengers per employee parking space (applies to 2014 to 2034 figures)
4.6 AIR CARGO FACILITY REQUIREMENTS
4.6.1 Warehouse/Office Facilities
Lafayette architectural art and design of offices should reflect local customers’ cultural heritage and history. This should also incorporate safety and efficient airport operation measures. The exterior of the terminal building and structures should avoid configurations and material that are likely to affect airport operation activities and safety. For example, use of mirrored exterior wall on or next to the airport might hamper air operations due to reflection. Mirrors can reflect back signals from various airport navigational and communication equipment and affect their use. Also, mirrored glass wall affects pilot’s vision by causing undesirable reflection and unsafe glare. The design also puts into consideration energy conservation due to high energy demand in the airport caused by different factors, for example, due to twenty four hour operation mode. Buildings should also meet the seismic standards to avoid disasters during earthquakes. Covered warehouse is critical in managing the receipt and dispatch of cargo. Warehouse volume size is dependent on the type of cargo and the handling mechanism employed (Uffelen, 2012).
In table 4 are the air cargo building requirements based on the forecast considering annual cargo specified by Pan et al. (n.d.; forecast figures are measured in pounds and converted to short tons in table 4). The air cargo rate and building capacity used were determined to increase by a significant amount each year for the forecast. These findings are expected considering the expected growth rate of passengers. Currently, Pan et al. (n.d.) notes that the area of the Lafayette cargo building has an area of 22,500 square feet – ample enough to accommodate the forecasted all cargo total tonnage of 12,467 short tons, which requires 22,441 square feet given a utilization rate of 1.8 square feet per short ton. To accommodate future increases in all cargo total tonnage, the utilization rate will be increased by 0.1 square feet per short ton every five years. Any future facilities that are constructed should contain additional depth and length to account for access from trucks and trailers. Moreover, the Lafayette cargo building should work on expanding its existing capacity of 22,500 square feet towards 2019, in which it is bound to have a capacity deficit of 3,165 square feet, given a forecasted required area of 25,665 square feet.
** All Cargo Total Tonnage multiplied by utilization rate (1.8 square feet for 2014; add 0.1 square feet every five years after 2014)
*** Existing Capacity minus Required Area
4.6.2 Cargo Apron Requirements
The Lafayette airport cargo apron was constructed on a 60,000 square feet concrete yard with a connecting runway taxiways. This apron were able to provide at least five parking for B757-200 aircrafts. Important aspect to consider is the security. Use of strong biometric enabled access combined with CCTV and video analytic can maintain a watch over a person and equipment. Visual direction towards terminal and gate area is provided for by markings the apron area to help the pilot. They also help the pilot to find their position on the apron. The markings occur approximately 7 feet from the taxiway centerline on the side the aircraft will be turning toward the apron. Particular gate access points are in the form of pavement markings and are highly beneficial in times of low visibility as they are the gate identification signs. For fueling, east of towing, and taxiing, apron gradients should not exceed 1.0 percent and should face away from the face of the terminal. Visual aid is used like painted guidelines on the apron or mechanical or light emitting devices are mounted at cockpit height facing the structure to guide the pilot. Blast fence is put in place to proactively manage potential jet blast at vulnerable areas of the airport (Dillingham & Marti, 2000).
Based on air cargo apron requirements displayed in Table 5, the apron area has an appropriate size currently for cargos and short-term usage. However, by 2029 additional pavement square feet will be required to meet the growing cargo requirements. These increases are expected as more pavement square feet will be required to park the additional airplanes. It should also be noted that additional pavement square feet may be required for additional service road areas and loading/unloading stations.
* Length and wingspan of B757-200 is 155.25 feet and 124.83 feet, respectively (Brown et al., 2010); Apron Area required by B757-200 is 57126 square feet
** Actual current apron area of Lafayette Regional Airport, suitable to accommodate five units of B757-200 and converted from quoted figure of 60,000 square yards(Pan et al., n.d.)
*** Apron Area required by B757-200 (57126 square feet) multiplied by Parking Positions
The figures in Table 5 are obtained using the standard length and wingspan of the B757-200 – 155.25 feet and 124.83 feet, respectively. With a minimum 57126 square feet required by the B757-200 for the apron area, using the formula [Length + (taxi lane = 121.5) + (terminal building clearance = 25) + (vehicle service road = 25 feet)] * [Wingspan + (wingtip clearance = 50 feet)], the current apron area of Lafayette Regional Airport, at 540,000 square feet accomodating five B757-200 units, is adequate enough. Forecasted details from 2014 to 2034 indicate an anticipated expansion of the Lafayette Regional Airport, with figures based on the required apron area of a B757-200 unit multiplied by the number of available parking positions.
4.6.3 Air Cargo Acreage Requirements
This refers to the space required for the proper service of the cargo at the airport. Different factors affect the total acreage requirement. Destination of the cargo, locally or internationally, affects the level of level of custom inspection and the bonded area necessary. The nature of the cargo is also important because it determines space required. Animals or perishables, which may require dedicated facilities for refrigeration, fumigation, incineration, or quarantine. The value of the cargo might also dictate exceptional handling and storage. The choice of technology has space implication, for example, the automated systems verses forklifts for transport (Rangwala & Rangwala, 2008).
In Table 6 are the air cargo acreage requirements. <note: actual data and forecasts on the following: warehouse/office and truck dock/parking, are not available; data shown on pdf of paper.pdf is erroneous and has no profound basis>
References
Ashford N., Mumayiz, S, & Wright, P.(2011). Airport Engineering: Planning, Design and Development of 21st Century Airports. Canada: John Wiley & Sons.
Brian, E. (2004). Modern Airport Terminal. USA: Taylor & Francis.
Brown, L et al. (2010). Airport passenger terminal planning and design. Volume 1: Guidebook. Washington, D.C. ACRP Report 25.
Dillingham, G. & Marti, B. (2000). Aviation and the Environment: Airport Operations and Future Growth Present Environmental Challenges. USA: Diane Publishing.
Pan, Z. Reger, D., Shata, H., Valencik, J., & Valencik, M. (n.d.). Airport Master Plan: Lafayette Regional Airport. USA. Intair Consulting.
Rangwala, S. & Rangwala, P. (2008). Airport Engineering. USA. Charotar Publishing House Pvt. Limited.
Uffelen, C. (2012). Airports Architecture; Architecture in Focus Series. Switzerland: Braun Publishing AG.
U.S Department of Transportation. (1988). Planning and design guidelines for airport terminal facilities. Advisory circular. Federal aviation administration.
U.S Department of Transportation. (1983). Airport capacity and delay. Advisory circular. Federal aviation administration.
