Airport to get new cell lot, better signs

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 a hot dog stand, or 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 electric board announcing flight arrivals, Rina Cutler, Philadelphia's deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, said today.

Presently, drivers approaching the airport on I-95 to pick up passengers have no idea how to find an existing PennDot "park & ride" lot on Bartram Avenue that the airport has designated as make-do cell phone lot.

Instead, motorists park illegally on the shoulders of I-95 and other roads leading into the airport.

The new cell phone lot will be on a portion of the old Route 291, also known as Industrial Highway. It's 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, PennDot, with approval from the Federal Highway Administration, will erect temporary signs on I-95, directing motorists to an existing "cell phone" lot on Bartram Avenue.

The signs on I-95 will go up in three to five weeks, in the north- and sound-bound 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 jug handle that is a left turn before the car rental dealers 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.

"We are looking at electrical signage boards and what they might cost," Cutler said.

In the interim, motorists can call 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 they should tell drivers how to get to Bartram Avenue.

Cutler was to meet today with airport, PennDot and Federal Highway Administration officials. But instead the issue was resolved in a conference call late last week.

"The meeting got canceled because we have a strategy and plan," Cutler said. "We have decided we are going to build a cell phone lot on the airport property."

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