Our airport's expansion now costs twice as much and will finish four years late.

There's no separate airport board to vote for. The same five commissioners who set your county budget also sit as the Board of Port Commissioners, which governs the Lee County Port Authority. That board hires the airport's executive director and approves every Phase 1 budget, contract and extension.

In September 2021 the board approved a plan to join RSW's three concourses and move all security screening into one new 14-lane checkpoint. The budget was $331.6 million. Construction would start that fall and finish in early 2025, with the new checkpoint targeted before Thanksgiving 2024.

In September 2023 the builder, Manhattan Construction, found errors in the structural design: the plans for what holds the building up. An outside review it paid for listed 18 major design deficiencies.

According to the airport's executive director, as reported by the press, the steel columns had been designed for 110 mph winds. The building code required 167. Manhattan said the roof could collapse in a Category 5 hurricane. In Lee County, hurricane winds are not a hypothetical. Try it:

The repair plan strengthens 80 columns with carbon fiber and tears out and rebuilds some concrete walls and beams. The first 12 to 15 months of the restarted schedule were demolition. As reported, the redesign added 440 tons of steel and reworked nearly 2,000 fabricated parts.

Commissioner Greenwell said the board was first told a fix plan would take 60 days, then 90. It took about 15 months. Staff said the redesign "took longer than expected."

When the plan and its price finally reached the board in January 2025, commissioners balked and deferred it. While they weighed it, keeping the builder's contract going cost about $4 million a month.

The plan was a three-year build. The builder's contract now runs to 31 March 2029. Tap any point on the line to read what the record says happened.

On 24 March 2025 the board added $346.8 million, bringing Phase 1 to $678.3 million. It carried with no nays recorded. Commissioner Mulicka tied his motion to new oversight: staff changes, monthly reports from the firms, and notice whenever more than $100,000 of contingency is spent.

The increase is the most the airport may spend, not money already gone. It covers the demolition and rework, 44 more months of construction management, extended inspection, and reserve money the airport holds. No document splits out how much is the design error alone.

Officials have said on the record that "none of the money spent at the airport comes from taxpayers." That holds for local taxes: the airport's bonds are backed only by airport income.

But about 12% of Phase 1 is Florida DOT grants, which is state tax money. Another 23% is passenger facility charges, a fee on every ticket. And the biggest share is borrowed against what airlines, rental car companies and parking pay the airport. Tap a slice:

Airport bonds outstanding went from about $374 million in September 2024 to $880.7 million in September 2025. Most of that increase paid for Concourse E, a separate, larger expansion. Then in March 2026 the airport sold $634 million more. About $250 million of that is for Phase 1.

Before the 2026 sale, the airport already owed $1.65 billion in principal and interest, with payments running to 2055.

For years RSW sat mid-pack among Florida's eight commercial airports, and in 2024 it was the 3rd cheapest. A year later it was the 2nd most expensive, behind only Miami. Its figure rose 111% in one year, the biggest jump of the eight.

Press play, or drag through the years.

In 2021 the airport's stated objective was "maintaining a competitive" cost per passenger of $8.50 or less. Its adopted budget for this year and its proposed budget for next are both well past it. Terminal rent per square foot for airlines is proposed to go from $218.54 to $287.39.

Airlines pay the airport to use RSW. Here is how a construction overrun travels from a budget vote to an airline's costs, with each link marked by how firmly the record shows it.

The cost of a late project isn't only in the budget. It's in the terminal, every day the construction runs.

These are questions the public record doesn't answer yet. Each one is answerable, by a vote, an audit or a records release.