"San Jose, Calif., Airport Construction Gets Go-Ahead"

Friday, March 29, 2002

San Jose, Calif., Airport Construction Gets Go-Ahead
The San Jose Mercury News, California


San Jose airport officials met Thursday with airline representatives and
Federal Aviation Administration officials and concluded they are ready
to move forward with a $40 million runway reconstruction project,
despite protests from air traffic controllers who say the plan will
cause flight delays and may be unsafe.

The dispute over closing for six months one of Mineta San Jose
International Airport's two main runways surfaced this week after air
traffic controllers petitioned the FAA to halt construction, which
starts Tuesday.

Controllers said they have been raising their concerns for months but
only went public with their concerns this week because key questions
haven't been answered.

"We haven't been briefed about the new procedures," union spokesman Rich
Burton said. "We are supposed to be told 30 days in advance, and here we
are three or four days before and no one knows what we're going to do."

Airport officials, however, said there's no reason for passengers to
worry about delays or safety. "The FAA has approved this plan. We have
meetings very frequently. We are getting ready," said airport spokesman
Steve Luckenbach. The construction has been timed for summer months, he
said, when fog and other bad weather "historically have a very low
impact on the airport."

The airport intends to close runway 30-Left next week for a resurfacing
project on the decades-old landing strip, shifting all airliners to its
partner runway, 30-Right. But that may be a problem, controllers say,
because 30-Right doesn't have the same high-tech, precision equipment
that allows planes to land in poor visibility.

Airport officials said they have no plans to install the same guidance
equipment on 30-Right, which opened for the first time to commercial
jets in August. Adding the landing equipment to that runway would cost
millions of dollars and was never considered because it will be used
almost exclusively for takeoffs once the summer construction is over.

"Both runways don't need it," Luckenbach said.

Construction on 30-Left was first estimated at 15 to 18 months, airport
officials said. So fearing the project would run into foggy winter days,
the airport had requested permission from the FAA to add electronic
navigational aids to the other runway.

Project split up Airport officials now say that's not necessary, because
they have figured out a way to split the job into two consecutive summer
projects. What's left to do on the construction project during the
summer of 2003 will not force the runway to be completely closed again,
Luckenbach said.

"Contrary to some opinions out there, I don't believe we are in a
predicament here," Luckenbach said. "We'll be fine this summer." The FAA
says it will respond to the controllers' official complaint about the
runway closing by Monday, the day before construction, agency spokesman
Jerry Snyder said. Officials said they doubt the entire project would be
derailed, and maybe small improvements could be made to help
controllers.


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