"Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Airport Issues Runway Repaving Alert to Neighbors"

Friday, August 22, 2003

Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Airport Issues Runway Repaving Alert to Neighbors
The Miami (FL) Herald


The north runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport won't be
resurfaced for another year, but airport officials already are preparing
people for the maintenance project.

While the main runway is being worked on next September, planes will take
off and land on the seldom-used diagonal runway. Thousands of people in
northeast Dania Beach, southwest Fort Lauderdale and parts of Plantation
will hear more takeoff and landing noise than they're used to.

Airport officials met with affected residents several times about the
construction schedule.

On Thursday night at the Broward County Convention Center, they explained
the final plan for resurfacing the runway, which has not been repaved since
1989.

Only a handful attended, although the airport mailed information -- and
invitations -- to more than 40,000 homes.

"I think they really want it done as quickly as it can be done," said
airport spokesman Jim Reynolds.

George Johnson, a retired longshoreman who lives in the Melrose Park
neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale, was alarmed when he received the notice,
but satisfied with the explanation he got Thursday night.

"It's going to be a little noisier than it is now," Johnson said. "But this
is a must. It has to be done." 

The $20 million project probably will begin next year shortly after Labor
Day, Reynolds said. The first three days will be the most difficult for the
airlines, because crews will be resurfacing the portion of the diagonal
runway that crosses the main runway. As a result, both the main and diagonal
runways will be closed 12 hours a day.

Then crews will move to the main runway and resurface it, which will take
about 16 days. Some of the work includes digging under the runway to shore
up weakened areas below the asphalt.

Planes will be able to use the runway, even while the paving cures for 30
days. Then it will close between midnight and 6 a.m. for another 16 days
while the final surfacing is completed.

Airport officials are handling the renovation project delicately, partly
because of the politically charged nature of a separate airport issue -- the
potential expansion of the south runway.

These renovations have nothing to do with the south runway project, but
airport officials want to avoid the community outcry caused by that plan.

"I think that's certainly got our attention," Reynolds said. "We're really
juggling a number of interests and concerns and trying to come up with
something that's the least disruptive to all the groups."


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