New York’s ‘third world’ LaGuardia Airport to be torn down as part of $4 billion renovation project

Decrepit LaGuardia Airport, known for its unbearable traffic and chronic travel delays, is about to be restructured.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined Vice President Joe Biden on Monday to unveil a $4 billion construction project aimed at redesigning the 76-year-old facility. The goal is to transform LaGuardia from a despised airport - which is annually ranked amongst the worst in the country - into a state-of-the-art structure suitable for millions of New Yorkers passing through each year.

"It's date. It is a terrible front door entranceway," Cuomo said in Monday's press conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Midtown.

Cuomo didn't explicitly address whether it would shut down during construction, but did give an estimated completion date of 2019, along with a detailed look at which terminals will be destroyed.

The plan is to destroy Terminal B and unite it with the three other terminals so as to expand transportation access, increase taxiway space, and rail link to the subway system. Unlike JFK, LaGuardia currently doesn't have a railway linking it to New York City. The new configuration also widens airline gates for planes and expands apron space for ground crews.

"New York had an aggressive, can-do approach to big infrastructure in the past - and today, we're moving forward with that attitude once again," Cuomo said in a press release that coincided with Monday's speech.

Construction on the first half of the new unified terminal is expected a total of 18,000 jobs thanks to the newly-formed LaGuardia Gateway Partners; a partnership between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

For New Yorkers, a new airport couldn't have come sooner. Last February, Biden likened LaGuardia to a "third world" airport during a speech stressing a need for infrastructure improvements in the United States. The comments came a year after Cuomo promised changes to both NYC airports during his 2014 State of the State address. Inaction on the governor's part led to the creation of Global Gateway Alliance, an advocacy group established to fix problems in the city's three major airports.

"We are transforming LaGuardia into a globally-renowned, 21st century airport that is worthy of the city and state of New York," Cuomo said. "It's the perfect metaphor for what we can achieve with the ambition and optimism and energy that made this the Empire State in the first place."