With new interchange, RDU hopes to improve access to its big remote parking lot
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Bridge would let RDU shuttle buses avoid left turn onto National Guard Drive.
- New access point and inbound lane aim to speed shuttles to terminals.
- Project aims to reduce waits and congestion as parking lot grows to 11,000 spaces.
As Raleigh-Durham International Airport triples the size of its remote parking lot off Aviation Parkway, it wants to make it easier for shuttle buses to run between the lot and the terminals.
RDU is planning a new interchange at Aviation Parkway, with a bridge that would allow traffic from the terminals to avoid making a left turn onto National Guard Drive in front of the Sheetz.
Buses and other vehicles leaving the lot would also avoid the traffic light at National Guard Drive, with a new access point to Aviation Parkway closer to the terminal. In addition, buses and cars headed to the terminals would have a new lane along Aviation Parkway to John Brantley Boulevard.
The final element of the plan is a roundabout at the entrance of the parking lot on National Guard Drive.
RDU officials will present the plan and answer questions at a public workshop from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, at the Airport Authority building, 1000 Trade Drive. Construction is not scheduled to begin until next year and is expected to take two years.
By then, the Park Economy 3 lot will have about 11,000 spaces, following an expansion project that began in late 2023.
All those cars and trucks must pass through the intersection of National Guard Drive and Aviation Parkway, as do the shuttle buses that ferry people to and from the terminals. Travelers now wait up to 11 minutes for a shuttle in the lot or at the terminals, longer than airport officials would like.
Without changes, the wait will get worse, they wrote in a report describing the potential environmental impacts of the new interchange.
“A dramatic increase in vehicular traffic would cause considerable delays and congestion at the Aviation Parkway and National Guard Drive intersection,” the report says. “The Airport Authority anticipates that the time passengers are waiting for a shuttle bus would become unacceptable for the Airport Authority’s customer experience goals and would lead to inefficient travel for customers.”
For more information about the proposed changes to Aviation Parkway, go to www.rdu.com/eainterchange/.
