‘Piece of my home’: Crews start work to demolish exteriors of old KCI airport terminals

With crews starting to use heavy construction equipment to tear down the exteriors of the old B and C terminals at Kansas City International, it’s understandable for some people to get sentimental.

“My first job in the aviation industry was in that building,” Kansas City Aviation Director Melissa Cooper , who worked for the now-defunct Vanguard Airlines in the 1990s, said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

“That’s a piece of my home, and it’s very kind of emotional because it is something that you treasured, and that’s where you saw people and your families connected, and people connected,” she said.

As part of the $1.5 billion terminal project, Cooper said that the aviation department and the airlines determined that the old terminals would be replaced with a new single terminal. The contract agreement with the airlines called for the old terminals to be demolished within five years because they didn’t want to pay for aging infrastructure once they had committed to pay for the new terminal.

“We’re actually well into the process of tearing down terminals B and C,” Cooper said.

The new single terminal, built on the site of Terminal A, opened in late February 2023. Airport officials intentionally designed the new terminal to incorporate elements of the old terminal and pay homage to the uniqueness of the Kansas City community.

Crews will take eight to ten more weeks to completely demolish the terminal buildings, which are only 75 feet wide and horseshoe-shaped.

“From a real estate option, there’s not a lot of space there,” Cooper said. “We will gain a little bit of pavement space for aircraft that remain overnight, for de-icing facilities, and actually just aircraft operations.”

The biggest footprints are the parking garages, which will remain and become a better parking facility for airport employees who currently park on the outskirts of the airport property and are bused in to work. Cooper said they would also serve as overflow parking for travelers.

Minimal impact to travelers

The aviation department does not anticipate the demolition will impact travelers or airport operations. There also should be minimal impact with construction vehicles.

The initial demolition has been underway for several months. The terminals’ interiors have been gutted, and the utility work has been completed. Now, the physical buildings are coming down.

“We don’t anticipate much new traffic,” Cooper said. “But where we are with the offshoot of the different terminals versus the current terminal, it will have minimal, if no impact to our traveling public.”

Cooper said about 60 workers will be working on the demolition, using six to eight pieces of large construction equipment to move a lot of rubble.

In February, the City Council authorized a nearly $17.5 million contract with Spirtas Wrecking Co. of St. Louis to demolish the old terminals. Concrete will be processed and recycled as backfill and regrading on the site. Plans also include recycling most of the metals.

So far, Cooper said there haven’t been any challenges that hadn’t been anticipated. In general, there’s the aspect of keeping the airfield secure and the airplanes operating around the worksite free from dust, noise and debris.

“This is just the next step to just keep growing,” Cooper said. “We, as a department in the city, are seeing great fortune and just great things happening in this community.”

The demolition will allow the airport to add 10 more gates where Terminal B is located, but that expansion is not on “the immediate radar,” Cooper said.