Pittsburgh International Airport's $1 billion modernization project back on track

Pittsburgh International Airport officials are poised to start a $1 billion-plus project that will create a new landside terminal in Findlay Township, Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis said Wednesday.

“We have an agreement with the airlines. They have agreed to pay for this, and we will be breaking ground in the fall, date to be announced,” Cassotis said.

The project has been planned since 2019 and was supposed to be underway last year. It was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic but is back on track now, Cassotis said.

Cassotis was joined by the region’s business and political leaders in a field Wednesday on airport grounds. They showed off a solar array with nearly 10,000 panels. The array contributes to a microgrid that supplies the airport and adjacent properties with power generated using solar and natural gas.

Pittsburgh International is the first airport in the world to use a microgrid, Cassotis said. It remains connected to the national power grid if more power is needed.

“We saw what happened in Texas this year when power was knocked out,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said.

Power outages because of recent storms also show the benefit of the microgrid, he said.

The airport is only paying the electric bill for the project, which was a collaborative effort by county, state and local officials and Peoples Natural Gas.

In 2019, the airport authority awarded a 20-year contract to build, maintain and operate the microgrid at no cost to the airport.

“We’re buying the energy from them. Our contribution is the land and demand,” Cassotis said. “It turns out that solar does make sense, even in Pittsburgh.”

The microgrid is just one of the green energy projects underway in the region. In January, the county announced an agreement that will build a hydropower plant in Emsworth to power county-owned buildings, including the courthouse and jail.

The airport project has bipartisan support from county, state and federal officials.

U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, said Cassotis has clout in Washington, and what’s going on at Pittsburgh’s airport is being held up as an example there.

“People know Christina by name. It makes it really easy to make a sales pitch in Washington for this airport. There’s a reason you see so many Democrats and Republicans here today,” Lamb said. “These guys are really at the forefront.”

Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco of North Fayette, who chairs the county’s Republican committee, also lauded Cassotis.

“This is just a part of it, folks. This terminal they’re doing is going to be the envy of people across the globe,” DeMarco said. “What’s happening here in Pittsburgh is not happening by accident. It happens because we have great leaders and those leaders cross party lines.”