HOUSTON -- It seems just like yesterday when the sounds of construction echoed even louder than the jets at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Just three years after the completion of Terminal E, make way because construction is on its way back to Bush.

"Not a lot of airports are expanding. It is just another sign of the tremendous growth and vitality that we have in Houston Texas,” said Houston Mayor Bill White.

Seven years and at least $1.2 billion from now, the outdated Terminal B will be five times bigger. There will be more gates, new regional jet facilities and a second federal inspection building that will allow for even more international flights.

But at what price?

You don't need to look any farther than Terminal E to see what can happen during big construction projects. The Terminal E expansion at Bush was budgeted at $1.4 billion. The final cost was closer to $3.4 billion.

Its target opening was January of 2004. It’s actual opening? January 2005.

Mayor White White bluntly said something like that will not happen again.

"If there is big cost overruns I'll fire people," White insisted. “I mean it was ridiculous what happened if you look at the project management costs.”

There is risk for cities that push for more and more expansion of airports, especially at a time when airlines are looking at mergers in a tight financial market.

Look at St. Louis and Pittsburgh. Both invested significantly in airport expansions to serve their hub airlines, only to lose those airlines through consolidation.

What is different is Houston's ability to control access to the emerging Latin and South American markets, along with the explosive growth in traffic here.

"All of those things give you a lot of confidence in the Houston hub. The Houston hub is here because of Houston and the people that support it,” said Larry Kellner, the CEO of Continental, the dominate airline at Bush. “I can't envision a scenario where that doesn't continue."