America's worst airport is getting a $4 billion makeover
The worst airport in the entire country — known colloquially to travelers as "hell on earth" but called "LaGuardia" by those who have never had to pass beneath its flickering florescent lights — will be torn down and eventually rebuilt from the ground up. Cue the choir of angels!
The $4 billion project will "replace the airport entirely," and is expected to be finished sometime around 2021. Among the planned improvements, the revamp will finally allow travelers to reach the Queens terminal via a rail link that will connect to the subway station in Willets Point. A ferry station is also in the works.
Since the delay-riddled airport is already operating close to capacity, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said his plan is to appropriately streamline LaGuardia's layout to create a "single, structurally unified main terminal with expanded transportation access, significantly increased taxiway space, and best-in-class passenger amenities."
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All of this is great news for haters of the notoriously terrible terminal. "If I took [someone] blindfolded and took them to LaGuardia airport in New York, he would think, 'I must be in some third world country,'" Vice President Joe Biden once famously said. Hopefully, come 2021, the LaGuardia of our nightmares will be a distant memory.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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