Countywide : Landscaping Project Slated for Airport

One complaint heard about John Wayne Airport’s year-old Thomas F. Riley Terminal is that it looks like a modern Quonset hut built in a remote desert.

But that’s about to change.

Orange County Airport commissioners this week awarded a $1.14-million contract to complete the landscaping around the terminal and along the airport road system.

The contract is expected to be approved by the County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 15. Landscaping work could begin two to three weeks after the supervisors’ approval and would be completed over a six-month period.

The airport panel, an advisory commission, selected the Laguna Hills-based firm of Coast Landscape Construction Inc. as the lowest bidder from among four firms that sought the hefty contract. The highest bid was $1.42 million.

The project, which will be funded out of airport revenue, was included in the $310-million airport expansion program budget, Murphy said.

Palm trees will be planted along MacArthur Boulevard and Campus Drive, as well as along the access ramps to and from the San Diego Freeway near the new East Parking Structure.

Landscaping will also include some eucalyptus trees, turf grass, hibiscus, oleander, Victorian box hedge, honeysuckle, bird of paradise and lily of the Nile, Murphy said. The trees will be illuminated at night.