RDU INTERNATIONAL — Traveling by air in and out of the Triangle has become quite a challenge. Explosive growth has leftRDU Internationalstruggling to keep up, but a huge expansion plan is in place.

More passengers means more parking problems at the airport.

"It's gotten worse and worse," says traveler Thomas Bedick. "You get further and further away from the airport as you try to get in here to park."

In the past year, passenger traffic at the airport has increased from 7.2 million to 8.9 million.

"We knew that the growth was coming," says RDU spokesman Mike Blanton. "We didn't think it was going to grow at almost 24 percent last year."

Airport leaders are planning to expand Park and Ride lot 3 from 2,000 to 4,000 spaces. That is just the beginning of a major expansion taking off at RDU this year.

By summer, work will be under way on a new 5,000-space parking garage. Eventually, six garages will fill the area between Terminals A and C.

Later this year, Terminal A will start growing from the south end with five temporary gates in place by 2001.

At the same time, a wing of 15 to 17 additional gates will be under construction. Thanks, Todd. -->