# Start here

This folder is the reproducible record behind *"Pittsburgh Airport cuts ribbon on $1.75 billion terminal"* (Brian Nuckols, West Hills Gazette, Oct. 11, 2025). It compiles, from archived and hashed documents, what the ribbon-cutting coverage could not get on deadline.

**The finding, in one line:** a $1.7 billion terminal whose budget rose 54% ($600M), built for 13-15M passengers a year while 2024 demand sat at 9.95M, financed largely by ~$1.66B in airport revenue bonds whose total and $2.5B lifetime debt service the Authority did not disclose at the event but the audited record does.

**Read in this order:**
1. `site/index.html` — the showcase, cost vs capacity, the debt reconstructed.
2. `appendix-dataviz/index.html` — the charts.
3. `FACT-CHECK.md` — every figure, its source, its verdict, and the remaining gaps.
4. `02-data/` — the ledgers; `README.md` — how to check the work.

**Check it yourself:** `python 03-harness/check.py` (no network, no credentials).