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DIA bomb detection plan changed
$70 million program for new equipment shelved in favor of less expensive units
By Ann Imse, News Staff Writer
April 23, 2002
The federal government is scrapping a $70 million plan to install up to 40 car-sized, CTX explosive detection machines at Denver International Airport by the end of the year.
Instead, the Department of Transportation plans to resolve its Congressional mandate to screen all checked bags for bombs by year-end by purchasing a different technology for 428 airports nationwide. Most of the machines will be explosive trace detection units that are the size of a microwave, 5% of the cost of the larger units, and much more precise.
Passenger screeners use the trace machines now, swabbing bags and then placing the swab into the unit for chemical analysis.
But they are slow and labor-intensive. So Transportation is seeking to more than double the number of federal security screeners from a planned 30,000 to 72,000 nationwide, according to Deputy Secretary of Transportation Michael Jackson and House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.
"This is the most gargantuan government undertaking since World War II," said Mica, who favors the plan.
The original 30,000 figure just replaces the current passenger screeners and includes no one to screen baggage.
Congressional approval of the proposal could be tough. The Transportation Security Administration arm of DOT is asking Congress to boost its current budget from $2.4 billion to $6.8 billion to pay for it. Numerous congressmen are not happy.
But the decision will postpone -- and perhaps permanently avoid -- reconstructing airports nationwide to accommodate the enormous automatic machines.
In Denver, the decision would mean no immediate need to rip up DIA's two baggage systems -- including the famed automated-cart baggage system that was so finicky that it delayed DIA's opening four times.
"We wanted to look over the horizon and see if there are some new technologies coming," Jackson said.
Already, Perkin Elmer is offering a new CTX machine at half the cost and 65% the size of the L3 and InVision versions now certified, said Hugo Poza of Raytheon. His company has installed both CTX and trace machines at airports nationwide, and is one of four vying for the prime contract to meet the year-end deadline.
"In the time frame we have, we don't rip up airports," Poza said.
DOT has not announced whether this year's solution will include some of the larger, automatic machines.
DIA says it hasn't been told what TSA will do, spokesman Chuck Cannon said. He said DIA has proposed using automated machines manufactured by Heimann Systems of Germany, which are faster and cheaper than the L3 and InVision versions.
Mica and Jackson said there simply are not enough of the larger, automatic machines to fulfill a Congressional mandate for screening all checked luggage by year-end.
But Mica also expressed a lack of confidence in the quality of the larger, automatic machines. "Do I want to go and buy $4 billion worth of crap that doesn't work?" Mica said.
"Look at the problems that Denver alone had with new equipment," he said.
The automatic equipment reports only the density of items in a suitcase, and thus can confuse explosives with chocolate. The trace machines are proven technology that provides a precise identification through chemical analysis, said Brook Miller of Barringer Instruments, one of the manufacturers.
Mica said Congress will have to approve the new plan despite the ballooning budget. "We have no choice," he said. "No one in Congress wants to talk about changing any of the requirements," including the year-end deadline, he said.
"It may be costly from an operational standpoint up front, but what's the alternative? I can't leave people unprotected," Mica said.
Contact Ann Imse at (303) 892-5438 or imse@RockyMountainNews.com. |
