Inside the new international arrivals facility at Sea-Tac

Contractors expect to be done with work on the new International Arrivals Facility at Sea-Tac Airport in exactly one year.

A few months later, sometime in the fall of 2020, passengers will be able to use it for the first time.

On Thursday, Port of Seattle officials gave KIRO 7 a tour of the vast arrivals area where passengers coming in from overseas will pick up their bags and meet with border agents.

Sea-Tac is getting more crowded, but there isn't much space to expand.

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So the $968 million facility is wedged between an existing concourse and a light rail line.

"We took every bit of space that we could," said project manager Janet Sheerer.

There's still a lot of work to do, but on one end, new floors are in and gleaming.

The signature feature of the new facility will be a 720-foot pedestrian walkway from the airport's south satellite to the processing area.

It will be high enough in the air for big planes to taxi beneath it.

Part of the bridge is being built at the north end of the airport.

Late this summer or early this fall, workers plan to move the center section of the bridge down a runway in the middle of the night and hoist it into place.

The arrivals facility is largely paid for by the airlines that will use it and replaces a cramped customs area that frequently generates complaints from passengers.

Cox Media Group