WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will begin a reconstruction of Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.
“We will also rebuild Dulles airport because it is not a good airport,” Trump said during a meeting of his Cabinet members at the White House. “It should be a big airport, and it’s not a good airport at all. It’s a terrible airport.”
Dulles is one of three airports in the Washington area and its quality is a hotly debated topic among Washingtonians.
Trump, a former real estate mogul, said the Dulles building was “misdesigned.” However, he praised Eero Saarinen, the Finnish-American architect who designed the main terminal at Dulles.
“We’re going to change that and we’re going to make Dulles airport — which serves Washington and Virginia, Maryland, etc. — we’re going to make it something really spectacular. We have an amazing plan for it.”
His motorcade took an unannounced drive through Dulles in early November. At the time, the White House said Trump wanted to tour the airport to assess potential future projects.
During Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy highlighted the controversial “people movers” that carry commuters between the concourses. One of the vehicles, which are also called “mobile halls”, crashed in November.
Still, some experts questioned the substance of Trump’s Dulles remarks.
Sheldon H. Jacobson, an airport security and aviation infrastructure expert whose research contributed to the design of TSA PreCheck, called the president’s announcement a “head-scratcher,” noting that it comes amid substantial modernization work already underway at Dulles, including a new 14-gate concourse set to open next year that will give passengers direct access to its AeroTrain system.
“I can think of much higher priorities right now,” he said, pointing to long-needed upgrades to the nation’s aging air traffic control equipment. Trump said Tuesday that his administration was also working on modernizing the air traffic control system.
Jacobson said the airport’s continued reliance on people movers remains a “glaring weakness,” but added that “there are a lot of things actually in very good shape at Dulles right now,” including the AeroTrain.
“I’m not sure what he’s thinking,” Jacobson said of Trump. “His comments are a non sequitur for the reality of this airport.”
The Department of Transportation announced later Tuesday that it is inviting bids for a Dulles project to build “completely new terminals and concourses” at the airport. The Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority said in a statement that it will work with the Department of Transportation to build on the existing $7 billion plan to improve Dulles.
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Associated Press writers Rio Yamat in Las Vegas and Josh Funk in Omaha contributed to this report.