# RDU Expansion/2040 Master Plan

**URL:** <https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272>\
**Category:** Transit and Transportation\
**Created:** [August 7, 2019, 2:51pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272 "2019-08-07T14:51:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![scotchman](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/scotchman/32/3024_2.png) [@scotchman](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/scotchman)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/122 "2019-09-23T16:27:29Z")

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Guess WRAL forgot they reported on this a month ago - LOL

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**Author:** ![RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/raleighfollower/32/16875_2.png) [@RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/RaleighFollower)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/123 "2019-09-23T17:40:14Z")

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Just gonna say that when i saw it

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**Author:** ![R-Dub](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/r-dub/32/3300_2.png) [@R-Dub](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/R-Dub)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 1:55am UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/124 "2019-09-24T01:55:28Z")

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That’s all you get for $500M (half a Billion!) these days?

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**Author:** ![OberlinSouth](https://community.dtraleigh.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/ba9def/32.png) [@OberlinSouth](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/OberlinSouth)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 1:59am UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/125 "2019-09-24T01:59:18Z")

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How about building some parking decks at Lots 3 & 4 and put the rest in the monorail fund?

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**Author:** ![dbearhugnc](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/dbearhugnc/32/4224_2.png) [@dbearhugnc](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/dbearhugnc)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/126 "2019-09-24T15:08:35Z")

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Possibly, but you better start saving your pennies…

[http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/HowMuch.html](http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/HowMuch.html)

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**Author:** ![OberlinSouth](https://community.dtraleigh.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/ba9def/32.png) [@OberlinSouth](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/OberlinSouth)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/127 "2019-09-24T18:56:19Z")

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Considering that it’s 2.4 miles to Lot 3 with an out and back and 1.8 miles to get out to do a loop through Lot 4. That’s 4.2 miles at what, $50M per mile? So $210,000,000 to get your monorail in place? Maybe make it an even $300M for monorail, stations, rolling stock.

That leaves $200M for structured parking on both lots. If spaces in a pre-cast deck installed on an already leveled lot with little grading and no storm drainage cost $12,000/space (?) you could add roughly 8,000 spaces of deck parking at each lot for up to 16,000 total new spaces with vestibules and waiting rooms.

$500M in pennies would weigh approximately 140,000 tons, which is a **lot** of copper. Where it gets really strange is that 275,312,500 lbs of pennies at $2/lbs for copper would be worth close to $550M.

$500M for the CONRAC seems crazy to me.

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**Author:** ![mike](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/mike/32/26_2.png) [@mike](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/mike)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/128 "2019-09-24T19:59:17Z")

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Fun fact: pennies aren’t copper.

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**Author:** ![TedF](https://community.dtraleigh.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@TedF](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/TedF)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/129 "2019-09-24T20:01:27Z")

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I zinc you are absolutely correct!!!

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**Author:** ![RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/raleighfollower/32/16875_2.png) [@RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/RaleighFollower)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/130 "2019-09-24T20:09:28Z")

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It is worth about 1.03 a pound currently (as of about 4 pm) for a lb of zinc scrap, so about 283569815$ for 140K tons of zinc

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**Author:** ![RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/raleighfollower/32/16875_2.png) [@RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/RaleighFollower)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/131 "2019-09-24T20:25:24Z")

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This will be idk how much longer but we could do a line to lot 3 from both terminals with a connection line in between, and a line connecting northward to the aloft and sellonna st, and a line going up to the employee lot. Maybe a loop line to connect too idk

 ![image](https://community.dtraleigh.com/uploads/default/original/2X/6/6d5ad661fb65417d76baf52dfa8ba030308a0a99.jpeg)  
[image|488x500](https://community.dtraleigh.com/uploads/short-url/2GmUiSFMhiv1Gi6OGv6zAdxkT4W.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![OberlinSouth](https://community.dtraleigh.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/ba9def/32.png) [@OberlinSouth](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/OberlinSouth)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/132 "2019-09-24T20:26:44Z")

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Either way, I wouldn’t want to have to save up enough pennies to build a monorail.

I don’t know the volume of pennies but I have to imagine it would take many dump truck loads.

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**Author:** ![RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/raleighfollower/32/16875_2.png) [@RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/RaleighFollower)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/133 "2019-09-24T20:36:47Z")

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Or maybe a simplified version:

 ![image](https://community.dtraleigh.com/uploads/default/original/2X/a/a9f543894c8a89b56dfb8a07ed32207aca1e91ba.jpeg) ![image](https://community.dtraleigh.com/uploads/default/original/2X/d/d464cd7d0b6f26629b70b117de58f194d1d1eb04.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Alan](https://community.dtraleigh.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@Alan](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/Alan)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 8:44pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/134 "2019-09-24T20:44:25Z")

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I believe structured parking is about $35,000 a space.

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**Author:** ![OberlinSouth](https://community.dtraleigh.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/ba9def/32.png) [@OberlinSouth](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/OberlinSouth)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/135 "2019-09-24T20:56:04Z")

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Just looking up “2019 parking structure cost outlook” it has an average of $21,500/space or $65/sf. I don’t know if that includes the land cost and infrastructure or it’s for a prepared site. That’s still 9,500 additional spaces which is a massive amount of parking. They also have plenty of room to expand the surface lots.

It’s been a while since I priced a parking deck.

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**Author:** ![CanesFan](https://community.dtraleigh.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ee59a6/32.png) [@CanesFan](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/CanesFan)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/136 "2019-09-25T00:13:48Z")

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I would just be happy if they could manage to evenly space out the employee buses.

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**Author:** ![RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/raleighfollower/32/16875_2.png) [@RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/RaleighFollower)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 7:51pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/137 "2019-09-25T19:51:55Z")

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> **[RDU International rises in customer satisfaction to No. 5 among large...](https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/09/25/rdu-international-rises-in-customer-satisfaction-to-no-5-among-large-airports-in-new-survey/)**
>
> Raleigh-Durham International Airport is not only in a new class in terms of airport size but also improving its satisfaction score with customers, according to a new study from J.D. Power.

Posted today, RDU also moved to “large” category from “medium” category. Also, we beat Austin and Nashville which is a plus.

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**Author:** ![Street\_Grid](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/street_grid/32/532_2.png) [@Street\_Grid](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/Street_Grid)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 8:00pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/138 "2019-09-25T20:00:24Z")

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You just beat me to it. TBJ has a subscriber article in which an economist at NC State says the ranking and upgrade to a large airport are “a big deal and a major positive for RDU” especially in regard to business recruiting.  
[https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2019/09/25/rdus-ranking-upgrade-could-help-the-triangle-lure.html?iana=hpmvp\_trig\_news\_headline](https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2019/09/25/rdus-ranking-upgrade-could-help-the-triangle-lure.html?iana=hpmvp_trig_news_headline)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/user_avatar/community.dtraleigh.com/raleighfollower/32/16875_2.png) [@RaleighFollower](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/RaleighFollower)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 8:17pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/139 "2019-09-25T20:17:59Z")

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Although never heard about the burgerfi in t2

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**Author:** ![NoRaAintAllBad](https://community.dtraleigh.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/9de053/32.png) [@NoRaAintAllBad](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/NoRaAintAllBad)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/140 "2019-09-25T21:31:38Z")

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Taking over 5Guys spot. No biggie…

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**Author:** ![jpc426](https://community.dtraleigh.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jpc426](https://community.dtraleigh.com/u/jpc426)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 10:25pm UTC](https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/rdu-expansion-2040-master-plan/1272/141 "2019-09-25T22:25:46Z")

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RDU really does punch above its weight. I feel as though fares are usually great and the number of destinations is impressive for a metro this size. I love being able to get to Florida routinely for \<$100 round trip! I know folks from southside and even central Virginia that will drive to RDU before flying from RIC, ORF, CHO, or DC.

BNA (Nashville) is dated and feels kind of crummy. Not sure if they have plans to revamp their terminals but they are in the process of building a new concourse. Austin has a nice airport but the low-cost terminal has poor amenities (cool design and outdoor patio though). Main terminal is often over crowded.

Not having to take a shuttle to rent a car will be a nice win when CONRAC is completed. I never enjoy having to do that in Boston although hear Massport is in talks to build a people mover, as that airport has also seen tremendous growth in the last decade.

As RDU also expands its retail offerings, I’m kind of hoping it nabs a Chick Fil A and maybe a market/food hall concept. Really enjoy 1897 Market when I connect through CLT.

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