The San Diego International Airport will close the main Terminal 2 parking lot on Aug. 6 to begin building a $128 million, three-story parking structure.
Bill Bolton, director of airport design and construction, described a “bright, inviting” structure with nearly 3,000 parking spaces, more than half of them covered.
“Land is very precious here and we need to build vertically,” said Bolton at a press briefing on Wednesday.
During construction, which will last into the summer of 2018, some 1,200 parking spaces will be lost. The airport is upgrading another lot immediately to the west, where 1,100 spaces will be available.
Bolton said the airport will use a reservation system and discounted valet parking to help relive congestion during construction.
He pointed out that the same lot was closed during the recent upgrade of Terminal 2, and the airport learned from that experience.
“We’re going to do a better job of telling the public,” he said, where to find available spaces, both at the airport and in private lots nearby.
He said Terminal 2 needs 3,000 spaces today, and the airport as a whole will need 7,000 spaces by 2035
“Our customer surveys tell us two things,” he said. “Our wifi at the airport is not good, and our close-in parking is not much better.”
