By WADE DANIELS

Staff Reporter

When it opened in 1984, the shiny new Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport was considered state of the art.

But like a 1980s vintage computer, the terminal opened just in time for the 1984 Summer Olympics is seriously out of date.

Built to serve 6.8 million passengers a year, the terminal handled about 13 million travelers in 1997.

“We can all see that the Tom Bradley terminal is way overcrowded,” said Jim Walles, executive director of Laxtec, a non-profit trade organization representing 48 airlines operating at LAX.

LAX is in the early stages of a $12 billion project to increase passenger capacity by 60 percent and cargo capacity by 140 percent by the year 2015.

But airport officials say they can’t wait for that project, which also will include new runways and passenger terminals. As a stopgap measure, officials are planning an $80 million expansion of the Tom Bradley terminal.

“The expansion is an interim program designed to take care of some immediate needs,” said Rick Wells, LAX’s assistant chief of planning. “It will help alleviate some overcrowding and discomfort the travelers encounter, but won’t nearly fix all the problems.”

In early December, the Airport Board of Commissioners put out a call for firms to submit design proposals for the project. A design firm is expected to be chosen in March.

Under the tentative timetable, construction would begin in early 1999 and be completed in 2001.

Preliminary plans call for about 150,000 square feet of new space to be added to the terminal by excavating below its west end.

Space will also be added by extending the terminal’s fourth and fifth levels so that they hang over part of the outside tarmac. The new space will make way for two new baggage carousels (for a total of 10), at least 10 new airline VIP lounges, and an undetermined amount of added space for passenger holding areas and for federal inspectors to process passengers and their luggage.

There also will be more office space for airport administrators and for shops and restaurants.

Walles said the airlines are supportive of the expansion plans, which would be funded out of the airport’s capital improvement budget. Money in that budget comes in part from airline landing fees.

“Something had to be done and it’s appropriate that the airport is taking action to make things more comfortable for travelers,” Walles said.

Passenger safety was not a catalyst for the project because the facility has not surpassed legal limits on how many people can use it.

“We have no safety concerns about the terminal,” said Jim Holtsclaw, deputy director of the western regional division of the Air Transport Association, an industry trade group. “However, with more federal agents to process passengers and with more baggage-claim capacity, it could mean the difference between a passenger from Japan waiting 45 minutes to be on their way (or) waiting 3 hours.”

In addition to adding baggage-claim capacity, the plan calls for new shops and eateries in terminal areas where ticketed passengers wait to board planes and where there is little shopping available right now.

Currently, passengers tend to wait in the congested outer area of the terminal, where ticketing and dropping off takes place.

The Bradley terminal is the only airport terminal slated for expansion. The plan will not address other pressing needs, such as new boarding gates or a shortage of ticket desk space for existing and new airlines operating at the airport.

For 1997, all nine LAX terminals will have handled about 60 million passengers, as opposed to 58 million in 1996. Passenger traffic is projected to reach 98 million a year by 2015.

Those problems will have to be considered when a new international terminal is built sometime after the turn of the century, Wells said.

The city’s Department of Airports is in the process of assembling a draft environmental impact report (EIR) for the “LAX 2015” expansion project, and officials expect to complete the draft by June.

A final EIR will be issued by the end of 1998, at which point requests for proposals will be issued to find a contractor to design and build the major expansion.