TIA orders new 1.4-mile people mover

TAMPA — The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority has contracted Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America Inc. to design, build, operate and maintain a new automated people mover system at the Tampa International Airport.

The 1.4-mile long people moving system will connect the main airport terminal to a new parking structure and a new consolidated rental car facility. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America will be supplying 12 new train cars. The project is scheduled for completion in 2017.

The contract also includes five years of system operations and maintenance after construction is completed to be performed together with the joint venture of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America and Sumitomo Corp.-Crystal Mover Services Inc.

The aviation authority board recently approved a 2014 capital budget amendment to spend $928 million on the first phase of the airport's $1 billion master plan. The first phase of projects includes the $417.5 million automated people mover, the $318.7 million consolidated rental car center, a $122.5 million main terminal expansion and other roadway and facility improvements at the airport.

“These initial projects will help us decongest roadways and curbsides, allow rental car companies to grow, and begin to set the stage for the doubling of passenger capacity projected over the next couple of decades,” Airport CEO Joe Lopano says in a press release announcing the amendment.

The airport authority says the master plan will be funded through bonds, grants and public/private partnerships.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., has previously built five projects for major international airports and eight automated people movers nationwide.