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Philly Runways Named For Accelerated EIS (Updated)
November 01, 2002
Philadelphia International’s runway construction plans will receive streamlined environmental review under terms of a new executive order, DOT announced on Thursday. The airport was the only one on the initial list of seven transportation construction projects selected by DOT for accelerated environmental review.
DOT said a cabinet-level task force, chaired by Secretary Norman Mineta, will build on this initial list of proposed transportation projects by reviewing the nominations now being received from state governors and local officials. The just-announced list “will illustrate for potential state and local applicants the kind of projects that would benefit from this initiative,” DOT said.
Janis Pierce, Philadelphia International’s deputy director of marketing and public affairs, said that airport officials are in the midst of writing a new master plan and nominated their runway project for the environmental streaming process. Officials submitted the required paperwork on Oct. 28 and received a call from DOT on Oct. 29 that the proposed runway construction would be included in the first group of infrastructure projects to be streamlined. “We don’t have a lot of details but we are very excited about it,” Pierce said.
An FAA spokesperson noted that Philadelphia International ranks as one of the most delayed airports and said that increasing capacity at Philadelphia would reduce flight delays in the mid-atlantic region.
Philadelphia’s original plan was to add runway capacity within the next eight to 10 years. As part of that process, officials were told to expect that, under normal procedures, the environmental review of the plans would take four to five years. “We don’t know why it would take so long,” Pierce said. “We thought it would be two years. FAA knew we weren’t happy about that.” She said it is not yet clear how much time the streamlined environmental review process will take.
As it now stands, Philadelphia will pursue two separate runway options through the review process to determine which one is better. Option one, known as the Parallel Alternative, would add one 10,000-foot-long runway; extend the airport’s two shorter runways to allow greater utilization by more types of aircraft, and extend and reconfigure the airport’s present 10,500-foot runway. This alternative, according to a description provided by the airport, attempts to utilize the existing infrastructure as much as possible.
The second option, known as the Diagonal Alternative, would require the building of four new parallel runways positioned diagonally across the existing airfield. The runways would be separated by enough lateral distance to allow development of a midfield terminal complex. This would ultimately lead to the complete redevelopment of the airport over the next 20 years.
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Copyright @August,2004 Prepared by Transportation Environmental Resource Center (TERC)