# Pittsburgh Airport Terminal Record

The reproducible evidence behind the reporting in *"Pittsburgh Airport cuts ribbon on $1.75 billion terminal"* (Brian Nuckols, West Hills Gazette, Oct. 11, 2025). It compiles what the ribbon-cutting coverage could not get on deadline: the cost curve, the capacity gap, and the financing stack, each figure traced to an archived, hashed document.

## The finding

A $1.7 billion terminal whose budget rose **54% (~$600M)** across four revisions, built for **13-15 million** passengers a year while 2024 demand sat at **9.95 million** — 31-51% below design. The Authority disclosed $129.7M in federal and $80M in state money; the roughly $1.5B balance rests on airport revenue bonds whose total and annual debt service it did not disclose.

## How to check my work

| Promise | How to check |
| --- | --- |
| Every figure traces to a source | `python 03-harness/verify.py` — each cited `source_id` resolves to an archived, hashed file |
| The numbers reproduce | `python 03-harness/build.py --check` — recomputes the cost, capacity, and financing figures |
| Nothing was quietly changed | `01-sources-archive/MANIFEST.md` holds a SHA-256 for every source; `verify.py` re-hashes them |
| One command does all of it | `python 03-harness/check.py` |
| Gaps are named, not hidden | see `FACT-CHECK.md` § Open records gaps |

## Layout

```
index.html            package front door (open me first)
site/                 the story showcase, cost vs capacity, the debt reconstructed
fact-check/           interactive fact-check ledger — filter, search, every figure to its source
appendix-dataviz/     the charts: cost curve, passengers-vs-capacity, the debt revealed
01-sources-archive/   sources.json + hashed raw/ + generated MANIFEST.md, PROVENANCE.md
02-data/              cost_revisions, passengers, capacity, financing, debt_service, impact_claims (+ airport_summary, derived)
03-harness/           capture / build / verify / gate / check / make_workbook
FACT-CHECK.md         the plain-text companion to fact-check/ — every figure -> source -> verdict; the open records gaps
```

The interactive fact-check ([`fact-check/index.html`](fact-check/index.html)) is the primary way to read the ledger; `FACT-CHECK.md` is the plain-text version.

Data is CC BY 4.0; code is MIT (see `LICENSE`). Figures labeled `authority_claim` are the Airport Authority's own numbers, archived and attributed, not independently verified here.