One last look

Now that most of the southern end of the revamped Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) is open, work is about to commence on the northern end. Demolition of the old terminal is set to commence this week. As you can see in this shot, taken yesterday, gates 119, 120, and 121 have already been closed and concrete removal has begun. I am surprised that the jetways are still in place; when work started on the southern end, the removal of the jet bridges was the first visible sign of work commencing:

Just as it happened in the C-10 alley, aircraft operations in the D-10 will be restricted by the demolition and construction work. This will primarily mean that aircraft operating out of the gates deep in the alley (30, 31A, 31B, and 32) will have to be towed onto their gates in order to avoid jet blast issues with the construction area. The additional time required will slow things down a bit, and the north-side ground controller will have to accommodate more aircraft on the taxiways while they wait their turn for the alley. The upside is that there will be no widebody aircraft in the D-10 alley for the duration of the construction project, so the wait times will not be as onerous as they might otherwise be. The affected carriers will be Allegiant, Frontier, JetBlue, Spirit, and Virgin America. Allegiant and Jet Blue will likely be the least affected, as they rarely use the deepest gates in the alley. I don't have the construction schedule to hand, but if the north side proceeds much the same as the south side, the whole thing will be done, with the new gates on the east side of the northern wing of the TBIT open for service, by this time next year.