One section of the narrowest concourse at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport just got a bit roomier.
After months of work at the world’s busiest airport and middle-of-the-night movements of building parts across the airfield , the first six expanded gates of the Concourse D widening project are opening.
Three expanded gates opened Thursday, and another three will open today, according to airport officials. The six gates are the first to open in a complicated and expensive Concourse D makeover that is expected to take until 2029 to complete.
Concourse D has for years been the narrowest concourse at the Atlanta airport, with hallways and gate areas that get jam-packed during busy periods.
“It can get quite congested,” said Frank Rucker, Hartsfield-Jackson’s senior deputy general manager of infrastructure, during an airport podcast this week. “If I had to rate a level of service, it would probably be close to definitely an F.”
That prompted airport officials to develop a $1.4 billion plan to widen the concourse while continuing to operate flights out of it. The project received $40 million in federal funding from the federal bipartisan infrastructure law , and construction began last year.