BURBANK — Bob Hope Airport officials opened a newly paved airport access roadway on Monday as the first phase of a larger project designed to smooth out valet parking operations.
The new route, called Avenue B, bisects the Star Park Lot, facilitating more direct access between that lot and the valet parking area, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.
The former north-south route required a full-time crossing guard, cut off access to potential spaces and added to the airport's traffic, he said.
"By moving the road over to the east and now bisecting the property, we are now at a point in the parking lot configuration where no valet cars need to cross that road anymore," he said.
Avenue B will also benefit any drivers traveling the entire length of the airport loop as a result of reduced traffic-flow interruptions, Gill said.
"It'll be slicker for the arriving passenger and the departing passenger," he said. "And the person who's simply driving the airport loop road will not be bothered with cross traffic."
But along with the new configuration comes an unfamiliar pathway that drivers should pay special attention to, Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority Commissioner Charlie Lombardo said.
"I drove along that road [Tuesday] for the first time and it's like a race course," he said. "I hope people will pay attention to how the road's laid out because it's something new and people aren't used to it. We don't want anybody getting in accidents."
By this fall, airport officials expect to have completed a new valet center that will bring faster service for drivers and a covered area for car pick-up and drop-off, he said. And with the new configuration, customers picking up their cars could travel directly to Hollywood Way, rather than head back toward the airport, he added.
Also as a result of the new configuration, shuttle service to Lot D, which now travels on Hollywood Way, will be completely contained within the airport, he said.
"The advantage we get out of it now in the final configuration is, No. 1, there is no more ferrying of valet customer cars off the site, which is operationally a very complex and expensive thing to do," he said. "Also, our airport shuttle buses that service Lot D no longer have to go onto public streets...so we have the side benefit of diminishing traffic activity on Hollywood way."
The project is being funded through approximately $14 million in bond sales specifically targeted for improvements on the Star Park property, which is located on Empire Avenue and Hollywood Way, Gill said.
The property was acquired in 2005.
