$3.7 mil. to study O'Hare terminal airlines don't want

A perennial consultant at O'Hare Airport has been awarded a $3.7 million contract to plan for a project major airlines are refusing to fund and consider "ill-conceived": a new western terminal.

Landrum & Brown has dominated the O'Hare planning landscape for decades, raking in nearly $80 million worth of no-bid business during Mayor Daley's 20-year administration. Now the Ohio company will plan for a range of possibilities for the new western terminal that nobody but the city seems to want.

Funding for the study was secured in February, when the Federal Aviation Administration approved the city's application to use $182 million in future passenger ticket tax revenue to design Phase 2 of the O'Hare Modernization Project. "The Western Terminal Planning Study is an important and necessary tool for us to coordinate with the state to provide regional and local roadways for western access to O'Hare, including the future Elgin-O'Hare Expressway and O'Hare bypass," said Aviation Department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez.

Fran Spielman