Small Alaskan City Welcomes Its First Escalator

Sitka, a small city in southeastern Alaska, is welcoming its first escalator with a new unit being installed on August 26 at the Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport, KCAW reports. The nearly US$500,000 escalator arrived by cargo container on August 25 and is part of a US$45-million terminal expansion funded, in part, by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. Airport Terminal Manager Joseph Bea told the source the escalator was packed so tightly into the container that a forklift had to be used to “wiggle it out.” The escalator is now being carefully dropped by a crane through the terminal skylight. The new, two-story terminal addition served by the new escalator is scheduled to open in May 2025.