The city’s $8.5 billion makeover of terminals at O'Hare International Airport is well under way, but a surprise or two may happen as Mayor Lori Lightfoot begins to put her stamp on the expansion and modernization of the airport's aging passenger facilities.

In a sit-down interview late Wednesday, Chicago Aviation Commissioner Jamie Rhee described a possible new approach to how food concessions are awarded at O’Hare, starting with work in Terminal 5.

The commissioner also laid out a detailed timetable for what will come on line when, for instance, work on the final new runway begins next month. She said O'Hare Global Terminal designer Jeanne Gang soon will hit the road to get input on her plan from neighborhood residents. And though she didn't say so, she gave every indication that Elon Musk's proposed super-fast train tube between the Loop and O'Hare likely died when its chief proponent, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, left office.

Here's what Rhee had to say in an hourlong chat with me and my colleague John Pletz, who covers the aviation industry.

Overall, Rhee said, the initial work on the $8.5 billion plan is "moving along amazingly well."

For starters, construction is scheduled to begin within two weeks on the last of the new runways envisioned as part of the overall O'Hare remap. That's an extension of 9R/27L to roughly 11,224 feet long, a $340 million job due to be completed in 2021.

The final full new runway is due to open in the second half of next year. That's 9C/27C, a $1.1 billion strip of concrete 11,245 feet long and 200 feet wide.

Even without those runways, O’Hare has been able to cut flight delays 63 percent since runway work began a decade ago, Rhee said. When the last two are done, the airport will have a much more efficient structure of two sets of parallel runways at its center, with single runways at its north and south ends.

Construction also will start soon on a 10-gate expansion of Terminal 5, which now serves only international flights but is being converted to dual use. Preliminary site preparation already is underway.

When completed, Delta Air Lines will shift its entire O'Hare operation to the west end of Terminal 5, with foreign-flag carriers dominating at the other end. To serve them and their millions of passengers, Rhee, the former city chief procurement officer, plans to bid out food concessions for the new sections of Terminal 5. Incumbent Terminal 5 provider Westfield will be eligible to bid but is not guaranteed anything.

Such a split concession could set the pattern for O’Hare's other terminals. Rhee said no decision yet has been made—"we need flexibility"—but strongly suggested the bid would go out in time to serve O'Hare's two new satellite terminals northwest of the existing Terminal 1, and the huge new global terminal that will replace the existing T-2.

Rhee said the bid likely will request "incubator" space in which small neighborhood food outlets can gain a foothold serving the lucrative O'Hare market. That's very consistent with Lightfoot's desire to involve minorities much more directly in growth sectors of the city’s economy.

Also consistent with Lightfoot's approach is how Gang will handle her task.

Rhee said Gang and the mayor recently met, and the mayor likes Gang's idea to widely incorporate in her design the Y-shaped motif that is a Chicago symbol.

This story has been updated to correct the cost and number of a new runway. 9C/27C is a $1.1 billion project, not $11 billion.