Terminal demolition begins at North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham International Airport

Demolition is underway at Raleigh-Durham International Airport’s (RDU’s) Terminal 1. Work began in late April and is expected to continue through summer on the terminal, which dates back to the 1950s.

Terminal 1 opened in 1955 and is considered the oldest part of the building.  According to reports from the airport’s website, the building was expanded and reshaped to fit the growth of region and the changing demands of aviation over the years, including new baggage claim space and three-story addition for airport offices in the 1960s and 1970s. An entirely new structure was built adjacent to the original terminal in the 1980s and the names terminal “A” and “B” were used for the first time. In the 1990’s a new north concourse rose above the 1955 terminal building and an underground pedestrian tunnel to the parking garage was added.

One of the sections currently being demolished is a five-gate south concourse extension built to add space to new carriers operating from the terminal. The airport constructed a new American Airlines hub in 1987, and in late 2008, Terminal 2 opened and the migration of air carriers from east to west across the airport campus began.
Following a $68 million renovation of the main, 1982 portion of Terminal 1 in 2014, the north and south ends were decommissioned and closed for use. These sections are now being demolished.

These areas will be landscaped and will be designed to provide sweeping new views of the airfield.
The next chapter of the airport’s development program will be determined in the airport’s Vision2040 Master Planning project. Several alternative development plans will be shared on June 1 and 2, prior to the completion of the master plan in late 2016.