LAX officials approve $170 million in road and terminal upgrades

Almost $170 million in additional improvements for Los Angeles International Airport were approved Monday, including major repairs to the aging upper roadway around the central terminal area.

The Board of Airport Commissioners unanimously awarded $80 million to Myers & Sons/Banicki, much of which will be spent to overhaul the departure-level traffic lanes built for the 1984 Olympics.

The work includes repaving and the replacement or repair of dozens of deteriorating expansion joints that allow the roadway to expand and contract as temperatures change.

Although Caltrans concluded that the road is structurally sound, airport officials say the expansion joints will present future problems as they continue to wear out.

The Myers contract also calls for new lighting and canopies around the central terminal area that match the Tom Bradley International Terminal’s new facade and an additional turn lane at World Way South and Center Way to ease the movement of traffic onto the southbound lanes of Sepulveda Boulevard.

The board also authorized an $89.9-million contract to further the remodeling of Terminal 2 and begin planning a midfield concourse west of the Bradley Terminal. Turner Construction Co. will do the work.

Terminal 2, which has sections that are 50 years old, is the second-largest international facility at LAX. It handled about 4.6 million foreign travelers in 2012.

The contract includes money for planning, a contingency fund for cost increases and preconstruction services, which include utility upgrades and bringing the structure up to current building codes.

twitter: @LADeadline16

[email protected]