Last summer, seven dog bathrooms were installed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. One Service Animal Relief Area was built in each concourse of the major airport to comply with the American with Disabilities Act. The bathrooms are fully equipped to ensure comfort and cleanliness for service animals and their owners.
They feature a concrete and grass turf area for dogs to do their business and they provide biodegradable pet waste bags to make clean-up easy. There is also an overhead shower hose in case your dog needs a quick rinse before you board your flight.
How much did these state-of-the-art Service Animal Relief Areas cost? Officials just released the price tag for the construction project and it came out to a staggering $3.9 million. The high cost was due to the complexity of installing them within the existing airport infrastructure. Because the airport is always operating, the work could only be done at night when the airport was not as busy. Workers also had to tear down existing facilities to install the new bathrooms, which added to the time and cost of the massive project.
The $3.9 million was covered through airport funding and the cost was not passed onto taxpayers.