Small, But Safe: Washington's Tri-Cities Airport has implemented both logical and physical security improvements

Nov 12, 2003 12:00 PM, Kate Henry

           

Winging their way out of Tri-Cities Airport in Washington bound for various points around the Western United States every year are some 250,000 airplane passengers, both commercial and private. Whether they fly aboard private and corporate planes stationed in the airport’s hangars — or aboard Horizon, Delta or United Express — their travels have been made safer by recent security improvements and more that are planned.
Physical and Logistical Challenges Shoring up nearly 250,000 acres of real estate, the airport comprises three major runways, an 80,000-square-foot terminal that’s home to three major carriers and five car rental tenants and a general aviation area with about 140 aircraft. The airport is always open for business.
All U.S. airports, large and small, have been impacted logistically and physically by post-Sept. 11 mandates handed down by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to better secure the transit of people, goods and services and, ultimately, to safeguard against a repeat of the terrorist attacks.
At Tri-Cities Airport, security improvements necessitated changes to both policies and procedures and to physical spaces and access control technology, airport director Jim Morasch says. Morasch, along with a team of other management personnel, oversees key aspects of the airport’s security function.
“The new security challenges have required a change in funding priorities,” says Morasch, referring to the technological and facilities improvements the airport has wrought over the past two years. “The TSA has taken over responsibility for checked baggage screening, for example,” he explains. “Airports are now required to use either electronic trace detection (ETD) or electronic detection (EDS) equipment to screen for explosives.”
He explains that ETD equipment, which Tri-Cities Airport uses, is extremely sensitive technology: “If you were to take a packet of Equal and divide it equally among all the men, women and children in the continental U.S., they would each get approximately three nanograms of Equal. These machines will detect one nanogram of explosive materials,” he says.
Morasch explains that while these detection machines are administered by the TSA, the airports are left to find space for them. “The TSA was in a position of having to deploy these measures rather quickly, so they really came in and plunked them down in the middle of our passenger ticket lobby, taking key space away from the area. It made for a mess because passengers coming into the ticket area had to fight their way through the machines to the ticket counters to check in, then take their checked bags to another line to turn them over to the TSA for screening, which, in turn, would check the bags while passengers could at last proceed to the passenger screening area,” he says.
Morasch adds that the airport is solving the problem by putting the detection devices behind the ticket counters to facilitate a one-stop check-in process more akin to that of years past – and that requires a 14-foot addition to the full length of that part of the terminal building.
Additionally, Morasch says more square footage is being added to accommodate a second passenger screening lane, and restroom space and a snack bar are being added beyond the checkpoint to prevent the backlog of people holding off on screening until the last possible minute, bogging down the boarding process. In all, Morasch says it’s about a $2 million expense to accommodate the new security regulations.
Fortunately, Morasch says, the airport was able to achieve twin goals when it came to implementing its new access control system, AccSys One from Synergis: switching over seamlessly from an outmoded access system to the new system without an operational hitch – and realizing significant cost savings by serving as a beta test site for the system.
Big or Small, Similar Risks Tri-Cities Airport is not a ‘hub’ airport and is, in fact, in a rural location. But the risks it faces are essentially the same as a U.S. airport of any size in the post-Sept. 11 transportation age.
The airport relies on access control technology to secure and verify the identity of users accessing a range of interior and exterior portals — ranging from doors, baggage conveyor belts, exterior vehicle gates, boarding and jetway gates and ground level walkouts to the the wired fence encompassing the vast perimeter of the 2500-acre property.
Morasch explains that the system the airport had used for the past decade or so had become outmoded and difficult to support. It sought an access solution that would provide ease of use and expansion potential for the future. “The primary challenge was getting the new system in place while the old system continued to operate,” Morasch recalls, “because of course to be without it would close down the airport. We needed to be completely confident in cutting over to it, because once we made that change, there was no going back – kind of like crossing the bridge as the water washes it out.”
The new system features keypads that can accommodate both card and a PIN for a higher level of security in the secure boarding area, for instance. In other areas, programmable touch screen readers enable a range of functions and users. “They function really as standalone computers,” Morasch says. “If you want a door operational for only 20 minutes, you can program it right there, and of course the system provides full activity reports.”
Synergis president David Duncan says one of the access system’s key advantages is its flexibility and programmability. He points out that the system has eliminated equipment redundancies at the airport: “Previously there were multiple readers at both the ticketing counters and at the baggage conveyor belts for example,” he says. “The touch screen display readers accommodate various users and functions all at one point, so the need for multiple readers is eliminated. Employees of multiple carriers are now able to use one touch screen reader for a range of completely separate functions.”
Duncan adds that the system accommodates virtually any card technology. The airport has chosen HID proximity cards and readers and, to date, the airport has issued about 500 badges to airport and airport tenant employees with varying levels of access authority. Morasch and his team administer the system themselves, and it is further monitored by a full- and part-time airport police force and by additional security personnel who patrol the airport around the clock. System redundancy is built into an exterior location, so in case of evacuation, the system will still be operational, he adds. “We’ve ended up with a system that is much more intuitive than what we had before,” Morasch says. “Non-technical people can troubleshoot it, it can be monitored from a desktop PC, and the capability for expansion is there.”
Going forward, Tri-Cities’ expanding horizons are bright: Physical space renovations continue, the access system presents biometric capability, and existing surveillance cameras throughout the airport will eventually be integrated with access functions.

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