Work on new Burbank airport transportation facility begins

Construction has begun on along-planned addition to Bob Hope Airport in Burbank intended to link airline passengers with other means of transportation.

The $72.7-million facility is being built on a former parking lot on Empire Avenue across from the Bob Hope Airport Train Station served by Amtrak and Metrolink.

The 520,000-square-foot Regional Intermodal Transportation Center at the airport will include a three-level parking structure for rental cars, a rental car customer service building and a bus station. The bus station will serve local and regional bus lines and accommodate shuttles to the subway station in North Hollywood and the Metrolink station in downtown Burbank.

An elevated, covered 1,100-foot moving walkway will carry rental car customers and bus passengers to and from the airport terminal.

“This project will reduce traffic and promote use of alternative public transportation while providing a state-of-the-art rental car facility for our airport patrons,” said Chris Holden, president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

The facility is being built to withstand a strong earthquake and will serve as an emergency response center in the event of a disaster, according to Andy Liu of contractor McCarthy Building Cos., which is building the project. It is set to be completed in summer 2014.

A separate, $8.5-million parking structure is being built at the airport to replace more than 1,000 parking spaces eliminated by the new transit facility.

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