LaGuardia Airport’s multi-billion makeover—already into its second year—is on track to demolish the crumbling and outdated structure New Yorkers love to loathe, replacing it with a 21st-century version. To the throngs fighting the hellish traffic through the current construction zone, it may look like the proverbial project-with-no-end, but good news: some parts of the new LGA are slated to be ready as early as next year.

“If you fly in next September, you could be landing at the brand-new gates in our new terminal,” says Ed Baklor, chief commercial officer of LaGuardia Gateway Partners, the private-public development organization in charge of the $4.5 rehabilitation of Terminal B, aka the Central Terminal. “Think of it as our coming attraction for the finished film.”

So what’s in store for passengers flying through the busiest terminal at the Big Apple’s close-in airport? Here's a timeline of what to expect over the next four years.

Think of it as our coming attraction for the finished film.

Spring 2018

The first evidence of the new and improved LGA will be the reopened parking lot connected to Terminal B. While hardly the most exciting of the coming attractions, for departing passengers, it could spell the difference between a stress-free arrival and misery: since the old lot was torn down in mid-2016, there’s been no short-term parking, and that—plus the ongoing construction—has created a screaming, honking mess at curbside outside that terminal's departure zone. The new lot will have 3,200 spaces for cars, which is 1,000 more than in the old one.

Another separate, but parallel project, will be well underway next door at terminals C and D, where Delta is rebuilding its base at LGA.

Late Summer 2018

Concourse B—the first of two gleaming new concourses at the Central Terminal (replacing the existing web of four narrow concourses), will open; airline tenants are likely to include Southwest, Air Canada, and other airlines currently in that wing of the building, according to sources. In contrast to the current digs, the new gate areas will feature 25-foot high ceilings, with floor-to-ceiling windows letting in some much-needed natural light. Among some of the other passenger-friendly features: nap pods, individual work stations, and a web of wayfinders and beacons that will give fliers more accurate information on their location and walking distances from services—not to mention estimate of how long they'll wait at security.

In addition to the usual lounges and restaurants, each concourse will also have what Baklor describes as a “New York-style pocket park,” with live vegetation, playgrounds, juice and coffee stalls, and roaming customer service agents. Walls will exhibit works by New York artists.

Winter 2018 to the end of 2019

Engineers will continue with the demolition of the old concourses, and the construction of a new, mezzanine level check-in hall and retail mall. Since construction will be less than half-finished, most travelers—even if they’re flying out of the new Concourse B—will still be entering the facility through the old terminal.

Early 2020

Think of this as the "new" LaGuardia's debut. This is when fliers will first be able to walk on innovative air bridges: these 80-foot-high structures will link concourses with a mezzanine-level departures area, check-in lobby, and new retail shopping and dining area just beyond security. The air bridges will afford travelers two distinct views; one, as they cross over the glassed-in bridges, they’ll look down on the taxiing jets below, and, on the western-facing bridge, they’ll have an unobstructed view of the Manhattan skyline in the distance.