If you've ever found yourself on a weekday morning stepping into Terminal 1 at Los Angeles International Airport, you might have mistaken it for Dante's ninth circle of hell. The frozen lake. No movement.

It's not fun.

But this terminal, and every terminal here, has been transforming itself into a place which might almost make you...happy. In fact, there are "happy face" machines that let you register your satisfaction in some parts of the airport. More on that shortly.

A half century ago, LAX was a gem of modern aviation, with its sleek mid-century modern lines and horseshoe layout. But it hasn't kept up with a growing population. Last year, a record 87.5 million people squeezed through LAX, making it the nation's second busiest airport behind Atlanta, and the fourth busiest in the world.

"This is our time," says Deborah Flint, CEO of Los Angeles World Airports. Under her watch, the airport is leading the nation in massive infrastructure improvements. By 2023, a people mover will whisk people from a parking location/rental car facility in 10 minutes.

"Traffic here will be a thing of the past," Flint vows. By 2024, you will be able to access any terminal once you've past security. Construction projects are building in flexibility to accommodate technological advances, like driverless cars. "What we're doing here at LAX is the equivalent of probably eight different mega projects at any one time," says Flint.

In all, the project is costing $14 billion.

How to pay for this? Flint says the airport is taking on debt and using profits from terminal concessions. The airport also depends on a federally regulated fee on every plane ticket dedicated to airport projects, a fee which Flint says currently stands at $4.50. "It has been the same rate for 19 years," she says. "You can imagine what the cost of anything was 19 years ago, and what it is today." With inflation, she says the fee should be closer to $8.