More traffic at O'Hare has City of Chicago calling for changes to construction plans
Traffic at O'Hare International Airport is growing faster than expected, and this has Chicago city leaders wanting to make big changes to future construction plans at the airport.
In a new bond statement, the city said it is negotiating with airlines about changing the order in which new terminals are built.
The $8.5 billion plan to revamp O'Hare dates back to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration. In 2019, Emanuel picked architect Jeanne Gang's team to design a new $2.2 billion Global Terminal, which would replace the existing Terminal 2.
The plan calls for the global terminal to be completed by 2033.
But the city now says it cannot afford to close Terminal 2 while the new global terminal is being built.
As part of the expansion project in August of this year, ground was broken for a new satellite concourse, which will add 19 gates to Terminal 1. A second satellite concourse is also planned, and published reports note that the city now wants to build the second satellite concourse before getting started on the new Global Terminal, rather than waiting until afterward.