Airport roadways

[empirestate]

I've noticed that some of the zaniest, most mind-bogglingly complex roadway systems out there are the ones that serves airports and their terminals. Double-decker roadways are the norm here, as are huge twisted heaps of concrete spaghetti, and very often there's a light rail or people-mover system blended in with it.

I'll start us off with JFK Airport in New York. What are some more interesting examples?

[cl94]

Toronto comes to mind at Pearson Airport, as 401 and 427 intersect as part of the airport interchanges. The famous 18 lane section of 401 lies due south of the airport, there's a mess of stuff to get between the highways and various airport facilities, and even a short numbered highway (409) that exists solely to complete movements between 401, 427, and the airport. While it looks like a big tangle, many of the ramps do happen to be braided. https://goo.gl/maps/PLOQV

[-NCX75-]

DFW Airport's roads are... interesting. I like the general layout, but man it's easy to get lost in the system if you aren't paying attention. Also, lots of left exits and odd engineering choices. Once they finish TRIP, the terminal renovations (which is enough construction as is) they should redesign and resurface the roadways, especially the ones connecting Spur 97/International Parkway (the main freeway through the airport) to the terminals. Those can get confusing. I will say that in my opinion International Parkway is one of the best drives in Dallas/Fort Worth though (the metro not the airport  ), the only thing is, tolls.

[roadman]

I've noticed that some of the zaniest, most mind-bogglingly complex roadway systems out there are the ones that serves airports and their terminals. Double-decker roadways are the norm here, as are huge twisted heaps of concrete spaghetti, and very often there's a light rail or people-mover system blended in with it.

I'll start us off with JFK Airport in New York. What are some more interesting examples?

Logan Airport in Boston, which has separate roadways for departures and arrivals.  Not completely double decker any more, but exiting from either level can get very interesting depending upon which airport exit (Boston via Williams Tunnel, Boston via Sumner Tunnel, or MA 1A north to North Shore points) you need to take.  And, during the Big Dig construction and the Massport terminal reconstruction projects - which were done at the same time - the traffic patterns would be completely different every time I would go there to pick up relatives.

[6a]

As a major hub, I can't believe how crazy simple Charlotte/Douglas is

[Zeffy]

Newark Airport is complex thanks to the mind-boggling amounts of ramps that lead to and from the New Jersey Turnpike and the highways around it.

[froggie]

Philly's kinda crazy too.

[SSOWorld]

O'Hare's got its own Interstate.  LAX has a road that branches into parking garages (which is essentially the terminal ), SFO has a direct interchange as does Philly (as Froggie pointed out). Dulles has a toll road to guard its access,

The bigger airports double-deck their ramps to separate departure traffic from arrival traffic to keep flow going in both directions, while smaller airports just put the flows side-by-side.

[cpzilliacus]

Dulles has a toll road to guard its access,

Dulles has a free road for airport patrons only (from the east side of the airport), as well as a toll road (Va. 267) and a "free" expressway (Va. 28) that runs N-S on the east edge of the airport property.

[cpzilliacus]

National Airport (DCA) in Arlington County, Va. is on a tiny sliver of land and has a pretty messy landside road network.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=arlington+va&ll=38.852826,-77.04345&spn=0.010494,0.017638&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&channel=np&hnear=Arlington+County,+Virginia&gl=us&t=h&z=16

[TheStranger]

In California, airport road systems seem shockingly simple:

- SFO basically has a short freeway spur to the terminals, that connects via "dual freeway" setup to I-380 and US 101.

- San Diego's Lindbergh Field once had direct freeway access via US 101 (now Pacific Highway), but in the 1970s, the terminal was moved to the south side of the property along Harbor Drive.  At-grade the whole way

- LAX has the most interesting setup on the property (the dual level World Way)...yet while there is a way to access the airport in a limited-access fashion (105 west to 1 north to World Way) through ramps, much of the traffic takes stoplight-laden Century Boulevard.

- Other than an interchange between 98th Avenue and Doolittle Drive/Route 61, the roadways to Oakland International Airport are ALL surface roads.

- Sacramento's airport road begins with a conventional at-grade interchange with I-5, then continues north through one interchange before splitting into an inner and outer loop with several ramps.  Surprisingly this is higher on the complexity list than some of the above examples.

- San Jose's airport has Skyport Drive connect to Route 87/Guadalupe Parkway via SPUI on east end, and to a narrow airport loop road on the west end.

[empirestate]

As a major hub, I can't believe how crazy simple Charlotte/Douglas is

I'm thinking the same about Atlanta.

[billtm]

The new Indy (IND) airport terminal has a very simple layout.

[PHLBOS]

DFW Airport's roads are... interesting. I like the general layout, but man it's easy to get lost in the system if you aren't paying attention. Also, lots of left exits and odd engineering choices. Once they finish TRIP, the terminal renovations (which is enough construction as is) they should redesign and resurface the roadways, especially the ones connecting Spur 97/International Parkway (the main freeway through the airport) to the terminals. Those can get confusing. I will say that in my opinion International Parkway is one of the best drives in Dallas/Fort Worth though (the metro not the airport  ), the only thing is, tolls.

The first thing that shocked/surprised me when I was at DFW is that one has to pay a toll just to get into the airport to pick somebody up/drop someone off w/out parking.

Logan Airport in Boston, which has separate roadways for departures and arrivals.  Not completely double decker any more, but exiting from either level can get very interesting depending upon which airport exit (Boston via Williams Tunnel, Boston via Sumner Tunnel, or MA 1A north to North Shore points) you need to take.  And, during the Big Dig construction and the Massport terminal reconstruction projects - which were done at the same time - the traffic patterns would be completely different every time I would go there to pick up relatives.

Prior to the Big Dig and when the previous Terminal A (where the old Eastern Airlines was) was still there; my mother liked the simple/easy access to that terminal & Terminal E (the international terminal) because no matter what ramp one took, it would ultimately lead one to the same spot.  She hates the double-decker ramps for Terminals B & C; despite my explaining to her that the lower level was for arrivals and the upper level was for departures (SOP in double-decker airport/terminal ramp design, and I knew before I would eventually be working on airport projects).

Today, forgetaboutit; she will very rarely go near that airport; which is ironic because she worked as a stewardess for American Airlines back in the late 50s/early 60s w/Logan (BOS) being her home base.  There were a couple times I flew in (got a good airfare deal and it was for a short visit) and she would rather have me take the T's Blue Line to the Wonderland station and pick me up there.

Philly's kinda crazy too.

Care to elaborate?  I've lived in the Delaware Valley for 24 years w/PHL as my home airport and used it many times over that period.   

While the traffic within the airport itself can be crazy (I will give you that); the roadway system is fairly straight forward.  It's essentially a parallel dual-road system that has the departures' roadway closest to the airfield and the arrivals' roadway further from the airfield and on the opposite side of the parking garages.

[Brandon]

Midway's is merely a set of long ramps leading to/from Cicero Avenue.

[freebrickproductions]

Huntsville, AL has a simple one:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=huntsville+international+airport&ll=34.655204,-86.765385&spn=0.028135,0.066047&t=h&z=15

A few of the municipal airports in the surrounding areas have even simpler ones.

[mtantillo]

As a major hub, I can't believe how crazy simple Charlotte/Douglas is

I'm thinking the same about Atlanta.

These are major hubs for connecting air passengers, with few (well, relatively speaking compared to the total amount of people served by the airport) origin-destination passengers. Both are also "fortress hubs", which further discourages origin-destination air travelers with high prices and a near monopoly on direct flights going to one airline.

ATL is more complex than it used to be, with different landsides for domestic vs. international passengers, though everything connects to the same airside network with the long shuttle train connecting domestic to international and all the satellite terminals in between.

[jakeroot]

Vancouver (YVR), Seattle (SEA) and Portland (PDX) are all incredibly simple. All use a double-deck system but the roads leading to them are fairly simple expressways.

Seattle is probably the most complex of the three, because the turn-around spot is rather far away and not very obvious, and many of the ramp splits are not marked with exit-only dotted lines.

Vancouver is probably number two because it doesn't have a freeway leading to it (just city streets).

Portland is the least complex of the three, because it's basically a big roundabout.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Montreal-Trudeau (YUL) lies between Auts. 13, 20, 40 and 520. While the 20-520 and 13-520 interchanges seem simple, they are actually a little confusing for motorists, and the whole area around 520 is fairly confusing to navigate.

Montreal-Mirabel (YMX), on the other hand, is a bit in retreat of the A-15/A-50 interchange, with only one access road from A-50. A-13 was supposed to reach it but was cancelled. YMX was supposed to replace the much smaller YUL as Montreal's main international airport, but it was deemed a failure (or sabotaged, depending on whom you ask).

Ottawa-Macdonald-Cartier (YOW) has a fairly simple road layout with Airport Pkwy coming from Bronson and feeding the loop.

[lordsutch]

ATL is more complex than it used to be, with different landsides for domestic vs. international passengers, though everything connects to the same airside network with the long shuttle train connecting domestic to international and all the satellite terminals in between.

ATL's domestic terminal road network is also being rebuilt to add separate arriving and departing levels, much like at the new international terminal. I'm not sure what the road network plan is for the oft-discussed south terminal, to be built with the next parallel E-W runway (at which point Delta will basically take over the existing domestic terminal completely) NE of east end of the I-85/I-285 confluence, although presumably there would be some improved access to/from I-285 as part of it.

Montreal-Trudeau (YUL) lies between Auts. 13, 20, 40 and 520. While the 20-520 and 13-520 interchanges seem simple, they are actually a little confusing for motorists, and the whole area around 520 is fairly confusing to navigate.

To elaborate, 20-520 currently is (and even in the future probably will remain) an example of the popular British abortion known as the "signalized roundabout," with the direct ramps from Trudeau to A-20 held up in legal wrangling between the railroads and the Quebec transportation ministry. Once you get on property the layout is actually reasonably sensible, though, and not dissimilar from the new layout in Memphis.

Speaking of Memphis, it's generally pretty decent except for (a) the mess where Memphis decided to tie the airport freeway into I-240 on the cheap and (b) the terrible signage on the route itself. For example, there's absolutely no indication what one of the two southbound exits actually goes to (the short, barely-signed connector to SB Airways Blvd and WB Winchester); you're just supposed to know.

[The High Plains Traveler]

Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) has two different terminals, and those are accessed by two totally different roadways. The main terminal is accessed off MN-5, and has the main airport parking ramps as well as the rental car facilities. The other,  once used for the charter terminal and international arrivals, is accessed off I-494 at 34th Avenue and has some parking as well. To go from one to another as a passenger, one can use the light rail that goes under the airport with stations at both terminals. (At one time there was a bus; maybe it's still in use). You can't drive between them without exiting the airport and re-entering at the other entrance road.

[cl94]

The main airport in Columbus, Ohio was somewhat simple until pretty recently, being connected to I-670 and every parking lot by an at-grade divided highway. Within the past 5 or so years, the access road was reconstructed into a semi-limited-access expressway that provides access to all intersecting local roads, parking lots, and businesses on airport property. At the west (I-670) end, a tangle of braided ramps provides access between the access road, I-670, Stelzer Road, and Cassady Avenue. On airport property, there's a slew of access roads and the WB side was shifted ~800 feet to the north for a short distance, creating a sharp S curve just west of the terminal. Not as crazy as JFK, O'Hare, Pearson, or Newark, but a bit stranger than the typical airport. https://goo.gl/maps/ocoq6

[froggie]

Care to elaborate?  I've lived in the Delaware Valley for 24 years w/PHL as my home airport and used it many times over that period.

Always seemed to me like a bit of a jumble, especially when PA 291 used to thread through as well.  Regarding the airport itself, PHL and CLT are the two airports where I've seen my longest taxiway wait times (upwards of an hour), even in good weather.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Your guys don't know Gibraltar. The only way out of that rock is... crossing the airport runway.

Pearson

Damnit.

[formulanone]

Ah, Gibraltar...the occasional runway which serves as both a sidewalk and thoroughfare. I don't think you can find an airport which puts you any closer to heart of the city than that!