In news this summer relevant to building these new midfield concourses:
Quote:
A controversial diagonal runway at O'Hare International Airport will close sooner than expected... . The Chicago Department of Aviation said Tuesday that Runway 14-Right/32-Left, located on the northwest side of O'Hare, will be "permanently" decommissioned in 2018. Previous plans were to retire the runway in 2019.
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http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2...ews/160709545/
So construction of the first new replacement terminal could theoretically kick off just 2 years from now! Though potential locations for it would be somewhat limited until 4L/22R too were eventually eliminated. But for example starting two years from now Concourse C could be extended westwards or southwestwards from its southern end, such as in scheme 4 or 6 above. In fact, at that point UA could relocate itself out of Concourse E, which could then be demolished, and then the rest of the CBP concourse of scheme 4 or 6 could be constructed. Following that, it would probably be possible to demolish Concourse F and clear that space for another new concourse, all without waiting for 4L/22R to close or for other new midfield terminals. Looking at this overall, schemes 4 and 6 are the realistic ones and fall-backs in case the diagonal cannot be closed in time; along the lines of chiphile's comment the other four schemes are more like fanciful thinking and maybe thrown in to create additional pressure to eliminate the diagonal runway.
(They theoretically could start right now if they chose a site very far west, out of the way of the current runways, but it would be a long tunnel ride from the rest of the terminals for every passenger and every piece of baggage, which is expensive. And in any event, architecture, engineering, bidding, and funding would all take like 2 years anyway before construction anywhere could begin.)