HANOVER TWP., LEHIGH COUNTY, Pa. — New details emerged Thursday about a new cargo terminal project planned for Lehigh Valley International Airport.
Lehigh Northampton Airport Authority, tasked with overseeing the Valley’s three airports, got a more than $40 million federal grant this week to construct a new, expanded facility where trucks can load and unload cargo directly to and from aircraft.
The INFRA grant program targets “nationally significant” multimodal and highway projects, according to the U.S. Transportation Department.
“We’ve done some of the preliminary work, some surveying, so it's not like we're starting from zero here, obviously. But there's a lot to figure out in this process now that we know we have a project.”LNAA Executive Director Tom Stoudt
“We’ve done some of the preliminary work, some surveying, so it's not like we're starting from zero here, obviously,” LNAA Executive Director Tom Stoudt said.
“But there's a lot to figure out in this process now that we know we have a project.”
The new cargo terminal north of LVIA’s runways, to include a roughly 100,000 square feet main building, will be able to accommodate up to four tenants, with room to park four planes at a time.
If demand continues to increase, the facility could be expanded later.
A grant summary from the Biden administration details a multimodal cargo facility connected to the highway. That includes a dedicated access road and unspecified intersection improvements.
A news release says the project creates a safe truck parking area as an alternative to the current practice of parking off-site in unauthorized locations.
The facility will be designed to serve express carriers by providing specialized operations for time-sensitive package processing, and decreasing tie from the existing cargo facility to the aircraft operations area by about 15 minutes, according to the administration.
Most construction will be handled by the airport authority’s development partner, aviation facilities contractor AFCO; the airport authority will be responsible for tying in the complex to the airport’s existing infrastructure by building new roads for cargo trucks and taxiways for aircraft.
Years-long process
Though it’s unclear exactly how long the project will take, it is sure to be a years-long process, officials said.
“At this point, I would really hesitate to throw a timeline to it because there's so much I don't know as we sit here today," Stoudt said.
"In the coming months, we'll have a better sense of where we think that's going to land. This is, as we talked about, our first INFRA grant ever, and so a lot to digest in terms of what that grant requirement is going to look like.”LNAA Executive Director Tom Stoudt
"In the coming months, we'll have a better sense of where we think that's going to land.
“This is, as we talked about, our first INFRA grant ever, and so a lot to digest in terms of what that grant requirement is going to look like.”
The cargo expansion comes as a result of an explosion of air cargo traffic at LVIA over the past few years, Stoudt said, mainly a result of continued growth in volume from Amazon, FedEx and charter airline Air Cargo International.
Each of the past four years saw record-high cargo volume at LVIA, amounting to an 800% increase since 2014, Stoudt said. In 2023, 275 million pounds of air cargo passed through the airport.
Plans for an expanded cargo terminal at ABE emerged in 2019, from discussions about the airport’s long-term master plan.
“The airport master plan that was approved by the [Federal Aviation Administration] really identified that early on and said, ‘Hey, what are you doing to accommodate all of this growth?’” Stoudt said.
“What we've been focusing on the last several years is how can we develop a project that continues to grow with the region?”
