Port Columbus International Airport served 6.7 million passengers through more than 20 commercial airlines in 2002. Projections call for the possibility of 18 million annual passengers by 2024, and those estimates have fueled major construction projects and planning efforts at the central Ohio airport. To that end, URS Corporation was involved in a $92 million expansion project that gave this facility a needed facelift, including automated people movers and escalators; a 4,000-car parking garage; and a new, 100-ft high, barrel-vaulted atrium entry.
The airport did not feel that the heaters were an aesthetically pleasing solution. The problem with this design was that each of the two escalator areas was served by a packaged rooftop unit that housed a small hot water heating coil providing a mere 20 degrees F air temperature rise. This design might have worked south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but not in Ohio.