Originally Posted by
fastair
DeLee, you would expand across the runways? Underground? "Not cheap" would be the understatement of the millennium, and that term is used in relation to airport expansion costs, which inflate as fast as defense contractor's costs when they have submitted a low bid for a new toy.
And that's why I entitled my post as "
There's space to expand - It won't be cheap though..." I don't doubt that _any_ construction at ORD for UA starts at $100M and that a new terminal in Areas 1 and/or 2 would begin likely at $1B. However,
if the Chicago Department of Transportation wants to get more growth, then this approach could be a potential path forward.
On further note and doing a bit more digging, according to the image on
Seth's blog, the new runway cuts through the middle of Area 1 and across the southwest corner of Area 2 (which probably will make UA's operations at ORD more effective if their planes can land and take off from there in parallel with 27L/9R use).
Given the demand for growth, even LAWA is investing something like $5B in infrastructure at LAX. So the possibility is there - but clearly doubtful in the immediate future - that UA and Chicago DOT could seek a growth path for more UA gates at ORD. But it will likely take the equivalent purchase cost of many A380s or 787s/747s/737s, etc. to make this happen.
David