Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 7, 1994 TAG: 9405090136
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DENVER LENGTH: Medium
The gee-whiz baggage delivery system at Denver's new $3.2 billion airport.
Denver International Airport was supposed to open last October, then delayed until December, then March, then May 15. Then when? No one knows.
The opening is postponed indefinitely because the system doesn't deliver bags. Instead, it has chewed them up, flung them from rail cars and sent them to a nether world for luggage with unreadable bar codes. The cars that haul bags have had crunching pileups.
Every day the airport stays shut means a loss of $1 million.
Now, some people wonder whether the airport's destination code, DIA, stands for ``Done In August'' or ``Done In Awhile?'' Others think the airport may be ``DOA.''
The airport, covering 53 square miles about 20 miles northeast of downtown, essentially is completed but for its $193 million baggage system. BAE Automated Systems Inc., the system's designer, is working seven days a week on computer software glitches that are the root of the problem.
BAE President Gene Di Fonso insists the system will work. And when it does, Denver will have the biggest, most modern airport baggage system in the world. It also will be the fastest system, delivering 1,400 bags a minute.
It better work.
The problem is that the airport was built around the baggage system, and nothing else will work.
``I don't know that there's any viable option or substitute for having the system on line at all,'' said Amy Lingg, a city public works spokeswoman. ``There is no alternate or we would have opened the airport.''
Until the system works, it is doomed to being the butt of jokes.
Still, the airport is no laughing matter to city officials.
It will be a hub for United and Continental, capable of handling more than 3 million passengers a month. It has five runways, a main terminal and three parallel concourses spaced so aircraft can move among them, minimizing turnaround time.
The airport is to replace 65-year-old Stapleton International, long criticized as an airline bottleneck during bad weather. While DIA will be able to operate more runways during snowstorms, it initially will be smaller than Stapleton - 84 gates and five runways versus 108 gates and five runways. Moreover, it is 16 miles farther from downtown than Stapleton, which will be torn down.
It's a mile from the terminal to the farthest concourse, which means a tug-and-cart baggage system is impractical, mayoral spokesman Briggs Gamblin said. The underground baggage tunnels are too narrow to provide adequate ventilation for motorized vehicles, he said.
The system will serve all 20 airlines with a network of conveyor belts and an underground railroad. Airline attendants equip each piece of checked luggage with a bar-coded tag, which is laser-scanned with a device similar to those in supermarkets.
The luggage is loaded on a conveyor belt and transported to an area where it is dropped into a car that receives a destination signal from a computer and radio monitor.
The 4,000 cars, operated by 100 computers and 400 radio monitors, will travel about 22 mph, BAE said.
by CNB