Airports come in all shapes and sizes. Some are teeny tiny, and some are just HUGE.
Those huge ones often require long, LONG, LONG walks to get to their furthest most gates. In fact, Kuru Footwear, a U.S.-based shoe store, made it their business to find out which airports in the country offered the longest walks – here are their results.
Salt Lake City’s walk isn’t quite as bad – the walk to the furthest B-Gate is 3,350 feet, roughly 0.64 miles. That’s still a heck of a trek, though. So a while back, airport planners decided to fix the problem with a tunnel that would help passengers not have to “hoof it” so far. When the construction project started, they even managed to poke fun at themselves, which is always fun to see.
Anyway, the tunnel project is officially done, and its so-called River Tunnel opened to the public earlier this week.
PC: SLC
According to the fact sheet on the new SLC Airport, the new River Tunnel is just as long as the mid-concourse tunnel (just shy of 1,000 feet), but its entrance is right as you walk directly onto Concourse A. This means passengers no longer have to walk to the mid-concourse tunnel to cross over.
River Tunnel also has moving walkways to help make the journey better; both easier and faster.
The River Tunnel, complete with a blue hue, is meant to reflect the rivers that flow through the state’s mountains and canyons. Over 100 songs (it has its playlist on Spotify!) will accompany passengers as they walk through the tunnel, including “Salt Lake City” by the Beach Boys, “Take Me to the River” by Al Green, and “Jet Airliner” by the Steve Miller Band.
PC: SLC
“With today’s opening of Phase 3 we have reached an extraordinary milestone in The New SLC Redevelopment Program,” commented Bill Wyatt, Salt Lake City Department of Airports executive director. “We have built an airport that is convenient, inspiring, flexible, sustainable and provides our passengers with a first-class experience.”
River Tunnel is part of Phase 3 of the airport’s $5.1 billion multi-phase redevelopment program. The new tunnel also includes space for a future train that will help take passengers to Concourse C, once it’s built.
More information can be found at https://slcairport.com/
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