The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey will vote today on whether to go forward with the long-planned $5.3B overhaul of LaGuardia Airport's Terminal B. 

The terminal, built in 1964, handles roughly half of all LaGuardia passengers, but it has struggled to keep pace with the demands of 21st century air traffic. 

If the project gets approved, the Port Authority will cover $3.5B of the costs, and a partnership of developers known as LaGuardia Gateway Partners will put up $1.8B, the Commercial Observer reports. 

While roughly $1.1B of the total figure reflects repairs that have already been underway at the airport since 2004, it's still going to be a massive undertaking. Officials say it's long overdue. 

"This is the country's largest metropolitan economy and we're limping with a third-rate airport," Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress, tells the Observer. 

Thor Equities' Joseph Sitt, who's also the founder of airport redevelopment group Global Gateway Alliance, wants to promote transparency on the project to "ensure it doesn't fall into the same traps of cost overruns and project delays," he says in a statement. [CO]