Will Rogers World Airport suffering from basic maintenance neglect

[Urban Pioneer]

Has anyone noticed the basic neglect that our newly renovated Will Rogers Airport is suffering from?

That airport is something that I take great pride in meeting friends at and sending them off from. After traversing many substandard airports, I also personally enjoy relaxing and awaiting my flight.

This week though, I took my girlfriend to the airport and noticed some basic issues in the rush to the ticket kiosk. One of the escalators was broken in the key elevator tower from the parking deck. The walls along the moving sidewalk were all scuffed up. I really didn't think anything about it.

Then I had to pick up a friend two days later. The escalator was moving again but sounding a threatening "WHACK" on every oscillation. A different escalator was broken this time from the pedestrian tunnel to the terminal.

Then today, I had to meet my girlfriend. On my way in from the parking deck I nearly bit the dust over a floor mat that had been strategically placed over a "pothole" directly in front of the automatic doors on the inside of the main elevator tower. A pothole! Inside the building! Covered up 3 Stooges style!

On the way down the still whacking escalator I noticed that the roof on the elevator tower was leaking causing the relatively new ceiling tiles to start visibly collapsing inwards. I noticed that the ceiling tiles in the pedestrian tunnel were also carelessly placed on their support grid and also collapsing from their own weight with gaps between many of them. The skylights in the tunnel were visibly dirty on the outside. The wall were more scuffed than I remembered with large unpainted "mud" patch repairs. The escalator was still broken and corralled off. And finally in the terminal, the large floating light diffusers hanging over the main security checkpoints were full of bugs and water marks.

I will say the building itself is clean and the structure seems fine.

Absolutely none of these things couldn't be repaired by a reasonably accomplished handyman and regular escalator servicing. Give some guy $20 an hour with a 55 gallon drum of 409, some paint swatches, a A frame ladder, and a concrete trowel. I know city budgets are hurting, but don't you think it is cheaper to maintain than renovate? Especially with the US Conference of Mayors coming this month. Geez...

[soonerguru]

Has anyone noticed the basic neglect that our newly renovated Will Rogers Airport is suffering from?

That airport is something that I take great pride in meeting friends at and sending them off from. After traversing many substandard airports, I also personally enjoy relaxing and awaiting my flight.

This week though, I took my girlfriend to the airport and noticed some basic issues in the rush to the ticket kiosk. One of the escalators was broken in the key elevator tower from the parking deck. The walls along the moving sidewalk were all scuffed up. I really didn't think anything about it.

Then I had to pick up a friend two days later. The escalator was moving again but sounding a threatening "WHACK" on every oscillation. A different escalator was broken this time from the pedestrian tunnel to the terminal.

Then today, I had to meet my girlfriend. On my way in from the parking deck I nearly bit the dust over a floor mat that had been strategically placed over a "pothole" directly in front of the automatic doors on the inside of the main elevator tower. A pothole! Inside the building! Covered up 3 Stooges style!

On the way down the still whacking escalator I noticed that the roof on the elevator tower was leaking causing the relatively new ceiling tiles to start visibly collapsing inwards. I noticed that the ceiling tiles in the pedestrian tunnel were also carelessly placed on their support grid and also collapsing from their own weight with gaps between many of them. The skylights in the tunnel were visibly dirty on the outside. The wall were more scuffed than I remembered with large unpainted "mud" patch repairs. The escalator was still broken and corralled off. And finally in the terminal, the large floating light diffusers hanging over the main security checkpoints were full of bugs and water marks.

I will say the building itself is clean and the structure seems fine.

Absolutely none of these things couldn't be repaired by a reasonably accomplished handyman and regular escalator servicing. Give some guy $20 an hour with a 55 gallon drum of 409, some paint swatches, a A frame ladder, and a concrete trowel. I know city budgets are hurting, but don't you think it is cheaper to maintain than renovate? Especially with the US Conference of Mayors coming this month. Geez...

Reading this makes me mad. This is city property, and the renovation was paid for by the citizens of this city. The citizens deserve better management of the facility, especially after the facility received a multimillion dollar upgrade. Aggravating.

[SkyWestOKC]

The facility was not paid for by the city or its citizens. It was completely paid through the Airport Trust fund. The Airport Trust gains its funds through Passenger Facility Charged (3 bucks added to every ticket sold), landing fees, royalties on oil produced on airport property, tenant leases, investor bonds, and other miscellaneous revenue sources. No city or state tax money was directly involved in the construction except for utilities and roadways.

Please know your facts before you babble off stuff, guru.

[Urban Pioneer]

Well what do you think Sky? Your obviously are in there all of the time. My background is construction so I started noticing this stuff when I actually had the time to stop and stare at it.

There was a cleaning crew in there at night busy cleaning. But they are not cleaning skylights, air vents, or light shades. It seems to me that this belongs into the handyman territory.

[SkyWestOKC]

You have no idea what I think about it....

You haven't seen rats until you've been in the back areas of the airport. Me and my ex-coworkers always called them Mickey's Friends. We caught one and sharpie'd it and named him George....fun little guy, he was around for a few months until he found the cheese-trap.

The maintenance, or lack of, is terrible but it's not the city's problem. The trust is responsible in sorting it out. That's all I was pointing out. I have more stories, but I would like to keep them to myself to avoid completely embarrassing the airport upper management. I'll just leave it at this: Aircraft parking lines need to be repainted regularly.

I have noticed they keep the main concourse in pretty good shape, but utility (car parking areas, walkways, the tunnel, behind the scenes areas, etc. are pathetically maintained)

[ljbab728]

I am in many airports around the country and world and there are similar issues everywhere. Airports are heavily utilized and need constant maintenance. I'm sure more could be done but don't think it's just a local problem.

[soonerfan_in_okc]

I am in many airports around the country and world and there are similar issues everywhere. Airports are heavily utilized and need constant maintenance. I'm sure more could be done but don't think it's just a local problem.

if thats the case then we should fix it up to stand out from other airports

[Larry OKC]

Although it would certainly appear that the Airport gets City (taxpayer) money (has its own 18 pg chapter devoted to it in the 09-10 City Budget Report (available for download from OKC.gov, Budget & Finance tab). Don't feel like finding out what those 18 pages of apparent taxpayer money encompass right now.

It also looks like SkyWestOKC is at least technically correct

Will Rogers World Airport

Financing the $110 Million Project

Unlike most of Oklahoma City’s recent renovation and renewal projects, the expansion of the terminal at Will Rogers was not financed with city tax dollars. Instead, all construction dollars came from funds acquired and managed by the Oklahoma City Airport Trust.

...

The Trust derives most of its funds from three main sources. For capital projects, AA Senior Lien and A+ Junior Lien bonds (as rated by Standard & Poor’s) are sold to investors, while airport improvement project (AIP) grants are obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fund improvements that affect aircraft and airfield operations. The airport’s operational costs are paid with rents collected from airport tenants and with royalties from airport mineral assets.

AIP grants from the FAA contributed almost $22.5 million to the recent terminal expansion, with the rest coming from the sale of bonds.

To service the bonds, passenger facilities charges (PFCs) are set by the Trust and added to the price of individual airline tickets, then distributed to the Trust by the airlines. The use of the PFCs collected is regulated and approved by the FAA. For the terminal construction project, $98.5 million of the cost was raised by the sale of bonds, to be paid off with PFC revenues. As a result, nearly 90 percent of the terminal construction expenses came from the people who actually use the air terminal.

The Trust’s reliance on this “pay-as-you-go” concept insures that citizens of Oklahoma City will always have an air terminal that is appropriate to its needs, as reflected by passenger traffic and airline service.

[SkyWestOKC]

It does get confusing. Yes it has a budget, and those budgets do go to projects around the airport, but the terminal itself was paid, like I said, through the OCAT fund, not through the budget. Also, the New Parking Garage was paid for through the OCAT fund. OCAT = Oklahoma City Airport Trust

A lot of funding comes from the FAA when it involves the operations side: taxiways, runways, airfield maintenance and lighting, etc.

The airport's city budget is helping to pay for resurfacing of Meridian Ave. (the portion that runs on the west side of Terminal Drive.

[Kerry]

If you think WRWA is dirty and has maintenance problems then you better stay away from Atlanta Hartsfield. Of course, Hartfield does have 200,000 people a day go through it.

[earlywinegareth]

i flew in/out last week. compared to many airports, ours is very nice. the only thing i noticed that looked crappy was the OU "highest in national merit scholars" banner hanging over the stairs you go down to baggage claim...it was ratty and looked cheap.

[mugofbeer]

It's very simple. Go to the substandard OKC airport web site and send an email. I did so a few weeks ago pointing out the lack of updated information on the web site and they promptly replied back to me - didn't fix it but they said they are going to soon. If you send your thoughts (copy and paste all the things you mentioned on here), I bet they start fixing some of them. As you said, you are in construction and notice some things other people may not notice as readily. Enlighten the airport officials that we are watching them.

[soonerguru]

SkyWest,

Thank you for clarifying. So it wasn't our tax dollars. It's still maddening that all of this effort at renovation happens and it's not being properly maintained.

[Urban Pioneer]

i flew in/out last week. compared to many airports, ours is very nice.

It is very nice because it is nearly new. It won't stay looking that way for long if it doesn't have basic repairs done.

[gmwise]

I have noticed that OKC (city) basic infrastructure is at the very least neglected, or the most a lawsuit waiting to happened.


I dont fly often and only care for the runway condition..lol

[mugofbeer]

contact them at

wrwa@okc.gov

[SkyWestOKC]

karen.carney@okc.gov

She usually responds to most things.

If it's important/urgent mark.kranenburg@okc.gov -- but, he's the head man, so he has a lot of stuff to do, the last thing he needs is a renaissance of emails. I only use that address sparingly and recommend the same to others.

[mugofbeer]

thanks for the better info.

[OKCTalker]

The OP didn't point out anything other than some basic maintenance issues prevalent in every airport. But these problems won't go away, they give the impression of incompetent or ambivalent management, and they'll be more expensive to fix the longer they remain.

I consider the bigger problem to be with management. It's one thing to fix an escallator or pothole, but quite another to make a change at the Airport Trust, and I've never known it NOT to be broken.

[Urban Pioneer]

I will email her a link to this thread. If you see problems with the airport, go ahead and post them. They should know.

[possumfritter]

If the airport is as neglected as ya'll say it is then there's a pretty good chance ex-employees of Case and Associates (Oklahoma City) must be working there.

[DelCamino]

Best of luck in getting some attention paid to this problem.

Two years ago I emailed Mark K. about this very issue. Specifically the dirty conditions on the 2-level parking deck (cigarette butts everywhere, nasty floors, litter everywhere. Looked like the sidewalks and surrounding curbing hadn't been cleaned in 25 years).

I was surprised to get a phone call from him asking more about what I mentioned in my email. When I began, he pretty much said he didn't notice any problem and if in fact there was any, it was the fault of the cleaning staff and he couldn't do anything about that.

Two years later, that area remains just as nasty, if not more, than before.

[SkyWestOKC]

I really don't think it's neglected. As has been pointed out, airports are high traffic areas. Sometimes stuff gets overlooked, and I most always side with the Airport Trust on these types of issues. I think the management is doing better than any other management groups we've had.

They really do excel when it comes to air service recruitment, one of the better teams in the cities of our size. They also do a very good job at organizing the construction of the facilities. However, regular maintenance is an area where we could see improvement, I think. Of the airports I've been to, from a passenger standpoint, they really are all about the same when it comes to the cleanliness and maintenance. I don't know about the behind-the-scenes stuff at other airports, so I can't compare, but I imagine it is the same everywhere.

[possumfritter]

DelCamino...if you by chance live anywhere near, or happen to use the Hefner and Council U.S. Post Office...you can see where I wrote last years date in the dust just inside the main entrance. It has not been cleaned in over a year! Of course I haven't been to the Post Office this week...

And the cigarette butts out on the sidewalk...disgusting!

[fuzzytoad]

DelCamino...if you by chance live anywhere near, or happen to use the Hefner and Council U.S. Post Office...you can see where I wrote last years date in the dust just inside the main entrance. It has not been cleaned in over a year! Of course I haven't been to the Post Office this week...

If it bugs you that much, pull out a rag and wipe it down yourself.. you obviously have the free time to do it, since you had time to write in the dust..

And the cigarette butts out on the sidewalk...disgusting!

What makes it so disgusting? Are you down on your hands and knees licking the sidewalk? Again, if it's so disgusting to you, sweep it up yourself..

The Post Office belongs to you... you paid for it.. The U.S. Postal service loses more and more money every year, why don't you help out and clean up on the property you paid for?