LA to greenlight staggering $250M expansion to LAX project — up from $13M

Los Angeles City Council is set to greenlight an extra $250 million on Tuesday to revitalize the Los Angeles International Airport’s curbside — marking a staggering leap from what began as a modest $13 million fix.

The jaw-dropping sum builds on an existing design-build contract awarded to Hensel Phelps Construction Co. in 2023 for $13 million.

The move would also push the touted Central Terminal Area Curbside Improvement Program at LAX out of its planning phase and into full construction, while extending the deal through June 2029.

The total price tag for the project has now ballooned to $308 million.

City officials have cleared the project under a categorical exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act, allowing it to move forward without a full environmental review, a step that typically shortens timelines for infrastructure upgrades.

The pitch from airport officials is a reimagined curbside that delivers a “modern and cohesive” look that captures LA’s energy while tackling the daily chaos that defines the LAX experience.

But the project has ballooned into something far more than a facelift.

The overhaul zeroes in on the Central Terminal Area loop, the notorious horseshoe where traffic routinely grinds to a halt.

Plans call for a sweeping rebuild of the curbside, including expanded passenger loading zones on both inner and outer roadways, redesigned pickup and drop-off areas, upgraded crosswalks, widened sidewalks, façade improvements to parking structures, new seating, landscaping, lighting, and reworked pedestrian pathways designed to handle surging passenger volumes ahead of the 2028 Olympics.

“This next phase of LAX’s transformation represents far more than infrastructure; it’s about creating a first and last impression of Los Angeles that is welcoming, inspiring and unmistakably reflective of our city’s character,” said Hans Thilenius, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) deputy executive director for the Terminal Development and Improvement Program, in a prior statement.

The curbside revamp is just one piece of a much larger, and increasingly strained, transformation of LAX.

Hovering over it all is the airport’s troubled Automated People Mover, the $3.34 billion driverless train system meant to bypass the very congestion this project is trying to fix.

The elevated system, designed to connect terminals to parking, rental cars and Metro transit, is now more than two years behind schedule amid ongoing disputes between LAWA and its contractor, despite being largely built.

City documents show the curbside overhaul will not tap the city’s General Fund, instead relying on airport-generated revenue, passenger fees, and bond financing.