New cell-phone lot planned for airport

Good news, Philadelphia: You're getting a new cell-phone waiting lot at Philadelphia International Airport - and clear signs pointing to it.

It won't have restrooms, like the fancy arrivals lot in Tampa, Fla.

But it will be lighted and have 150 parking spaces. And it might even have an electronic board announcing flight arrivals, Rina Cutler, Philadelphia's deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, said yesterday.

Currently, drivers approaching the airport on I-95 to pick up passengers get no hints on how to find an existing PennDot "park and ride" lot on Bartram Avenue that the airport has designated as a make-do cell-phone lot.

Instead, motorists parked illegally on the shoulders of I-95 and other roads leading into the airport - until recently, when police began a crackdown that provoked an uproar.

The new cell-phone lot will be on a portion of the old Route 291, also known as Industrial Highway. It is on airport property, and the road has been closed since the airport's north-south runway was lengthened last year.

The $300,000 to $400,000 cost of construction will come from airport aviation funds, not city funds, Cutler said.

The new lot is expected to be operational by the first of the year.

Until then, the state Department of Transportation, with approval from the Federal Highway Administration, will erect temporary signs on I-95, directing motorists to the existing lot on Bartram Avenue.

The signs on I-95 will go up in three to five weeks, in the northbound and southbound lanes.

All signage for the new cell-phone lot will be on airport property, in the area where blue airport signs now direct to arrivals and departures roads.

The lot will be on a portion of now-closed Route 291 close to Tinicum Township but still within Philadelphia.

Motorists will enter the new lot from an airport roadway and a jughandle that is a left turn before the car-rental agencies on the same road as the airport garages, Cutler said.

Philadelphia airport police will make safety patrols of the lot, which is designed for short-term use. "We don't expect people to show up four hours before a flight, and we expect them to stay with their vehicles," Cutler said.

Airport engineers are studying now how to get flight display information, power, data, and communications to the new lot, Cutler said. "We are looking at electrical signage boards and what they might cost."

In the interim, motorists can call 1-800-745-4283 (1-800-PHL-GATE) to check the status of flights, she said.

The issue boiled up earlier this month when state police began enforcing a no-parking law on the I-95 ramps and began issuing tickets of up to $147.

Motorists and several elected officials cried foul, saying if the state was going to begin citations, officers should tell drivers how to get to Bartram Avenue.

Yesterday, some of those same people expressed relief.

"Amen!" said Catherine Rossi, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, who two weeks ago urged ticketed drivers to take their cases to court. "It makes you wonder why it took so long. This is a win for motorists and travelers" who deserve what many patrons at other airports already enjoy - "a safe place to make a call to check on the arriving flights of friends and family."

Sandra Bielby, a homemaker from West Chester, said "it's great" that the lot will now be in the airport. "The fact it's on airport property, it's more the security issue with me." She said her husband didn't want her waiting in the Bartram Avenue lot "because it's too isolated."

City Councilman Frank Rizzo, a tireless proponent of a well-marked, convenient cell-phone lot, said "it was a long time coming." He recalled meeting with the prior city aviation director to try to come up with a suitable location. The now-closed Route 291 was not available then.

"It's good, and I just hope that we can get it accomplished as quickly as possible and make this an airport that can say it has a facility as good as any in the United States," Rizzo said.

City, airport, PennDot, and federal highway officials were to meet yesterday on the issue, but that meeting was canceled "because we have a strategy and a plan," Cutler said.

"Councilman Rizzo has been dealing with this since 2002," Cutler said. "It's long enough. We should be able to put a cell-phone lot on the airport property."