A First Step for LAX

Mayor James K. Hahn announced Monday that the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport would undergo a $225-million remodel beginning next summer. Although not quite a breakthrough in the stalemate over a new airport master plan, it’s a welcome first step.

The 20-year-old Bradley terminal looks more like a worn-out bus station than an international gateway. Besides general repairs and fresh paint, the renovation will add new ticketing kiosks, clearer signs, new baggage carousels, a new public address system and additional shops and restaurants. Van-sized explosives-detection machines will be incorporated into a new baggage system in the basement of the building.

The terminal will remain open during the work, which is expected to take about 2 1/2 years.

The rehab is separate from Hahn’s proposed $9-billion airportwide modernization. Because the Bradley upgrade involves only the interior of an existing building, it sidesteps the bitter battle over expanding LAX that has so far stalled approval of a wider overhaul.

Modernizing the Bradley terminal does, however, set the stage for other, equally needed upgrades to the rest of LAX, such as reconfiguring its runways to eliminate near collisions and redoing gates to accommodate a new generation of super-sized passenger jets.

Hahn’s modernization plan calls for such improvements, but it also spends billions on what experts say are questionable security improvements and puts an impractical promise to cap passenger growth above regional economic needs.

The upgrading of the Bradley terminal is clearly needed and widely supported. It should go forward -- even if the rest of Hahn’s plan gets as backed up as jumbo jets on a holiday weekend.