LaGuardia chaos forces travelers to walk on roads

Getting to LaGuardia Airport these days takes extra time and extra patience. Many travelers learned that the hard way last week.

Traffic backed up so badly getting into the terminal that some people got out of cars and walked into oncoming traffic and even jumped over barriers to try to get to their flights on time. New construction for the airport expansion is part of the trouble coupled with a snow storm last week.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said such chaos is unacceptable. He said traffic experts are researching ways to alleviate the problem going forward.

"We are building an entire new airport at La Guardia and we're doing it on an accelerated basis," Cuomo said. "It could take 10 years to build an airport. We're trying to get it done in about four years. So we're building a new airport on the site and we are also operating the existing airport on the site and the site is a large postage stamp."

LaGuardia Airport's officials are anticipating a busy weekend. The airport website has travel tips telling passengers to anticipate delays and allow an extra 90 minutes to get there.

While travelers may not enjoy delays getting here, they are hoping the inconveniences will be worth in the future when there is a new and improved airport.