LAX to Get U.S. Funds

The Department of Homeland Security will announce today that it is giving $256 million to the city’s airport agency to help defray the cost of new baggage systems at Los Angeles and Ontario international airports.

LAX is one of only 10 major commercial airports expected to receive federal funding this year to help build truck-sized explosives-detection machines into the baggage systems that ferry luggage from ticket counters to waiting airplanes.

At LAX, the move is necessary to get the three-ton machines out of terminal lobbies, where they are contributing to long lines. It will also boost security, officials say, by allowing the city’s airport agency to get rid of less efficient devices, such as those that look for trace amounts of explosives on luggage.

The federal grant represents 75% of the estimated $342 million it will cost to overhaul baggage systems at LAX and Ontario.

The money will allow the city to rip out 1960s-era baggage conveyors at LAX and install more efficient computer-based systems. Officials need to replace about three miles of aging belts, making sure at the same time that about 150,000 bags make it onto the proper flights each day. LAX handles more luggage than any other U.S. airport.

The baggage systems that crisscross the lower levels of most of the airport’s nine terminals run at only one speed and were not built to incorporate machines that inspect baggage for explosives.

“These terminals were not designed for this,” said Michael DiGirolamo, a deputy executive director at the airport agency. “These are very simplistic systems designed to get bags out to aircraft ... not to inspect bags.”

The new systems, expected to take four years to design and build, are to feature computers that will allow operators to control the speed at which bags enter explosives detection machines. The airport also plans to build blast-resistant rooms near belts in case suspicious materials are found in luggage.

The city’s Airport Commission will consider extending the contracts of several consulting firms today to design the new baggage systems.

Los Angeles was chosen to receive federal assistance to replace its baggage systems this year in part because it has been singled out by terrorists. Algerian Ahmed Ressam was arrested at the Canadian border in December 1999 with a load of explosives intended to blow up a terminal at LAX.

The world’s fifth-busiest airport also has had problems with long lines for security screening. During busy travel periods, the lines often extend outside airport terminals onto sidewalks, providing a target for terrorists.

The federal grant sets aside $235 million to overhaul LAX’s baggage system and $21 million to rework belts at Ontario. The overall cost to redo Ontario’s system is expected to be about $28 million.

The $1-million cost of each explosives-detection machine -- about 60 at LAX and 10 at Ontario -- is not included in the grant and will be paid by the federal government. The machines that are currently in airport lobbies will be shipped to other facilities.

Los Angeles is the fourth major airport to receive federal assistance to rework its baggage system. In July, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Seattle/Tacoma International Airport would receive a $159-million grant to do similar work, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport was given $104 million and Boston Logan International $87 million.

There’s some controversy about the decision to place LAX near the front of the line. Despite protests from some major airports that they couldn’t meet the deadline, LAX complied with a federal mandate to electronically screen all checked luggage for explosives by last Dec. 31.