FAA Raises Concerns About Shortening New Runway

December 2, 2003
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida

FAA Raises Concerns About Shortening New Runway

Federal aviation officials have raised last-minute concerns about shortening
a new runway planned for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, as
county commissioners prepare to decide the fate of the controversial
expansion.

County officials had been exploring whether longstanding plans for a
9,000-foot runway on the airport's south side could be scaled back to lessen
the impact on nearby neighborhoods and wetlands. But the Federal Aviation
Administration, in a recent letter, cited problems a shorter runway might
cause.

Many airline pilots would use a shorter runway only for landings, the FAA
told county officials. Neighborhoods to the west of the airport in Hollywood
and Davie would then face more noise than expected because planes would
descend from the Everglades over their homes. The county had promised that
the southern runway would be used primarily for takeoffs to the east,
disturbing fewer residents. 

County commissioners are set to discuss today whether to proceed with plans
to build the 9,000-foot southern runway or pursue one of the other options
laid out last month by consultants. The consultants said the runway could be
shortened or shifted to the north side and still address travel demands of
the next 20 years.

Business interests and neighborhoods to the north of the airport are lining
up behind a 9,000-foot southern runway, while environmentalists and
neighborhoods to the south are largely backing construction on the north
side.

Expansion supporters touted the FAA letter as a sign that the county should
stay with the current plans, but others questioned whether it had been
orchestrated to influence the upcoming decision.

Swing commissioners are being lobbied by both sides, but would reveal little
Monday about where they stood. The commission has set aside time during its
meetings today and on Dec. 9 to decide what to do.

"There are quite a lot more options to accommodate our growth and still be
sensitive to our communities than we had been told before and we need to
talk about them as a group," Commissioner Kristin Jacobs said. 

The county's airport task force could not reach a consensus on the expansion
Monday after months of discussion and in the end narrowly recommended the
9,000-foot south runway in a vote that split along long-established battle
lines. A group of high school students rallied later Monday in Hollywood
because of concern over the environmental consequences of the expansion, and
community meetings took place in Dania Beach and Fort Lauderdale about the
issue. 

The airport has sought to extend the south runway from 5,276 feet to 8,920
feet so it could handle aircraft simultaneously with the main north runway.
Officials have contended the $529 million project is needed to avoid travel
delays, but critics have charged that it would harm nearby neighborhoods,
parks and wetlands.

The commission has held off a decision since spring to let consultants sort
through the concerns. Their report said the runway could be shortened to
7,985 feet -- or even 7,160 feet -- and save environmentally sensitive
wetlands. 

The FAA letter, though, challenged the report's conclusions about how the
airline industry would react.

The consultants maintained pilots might balk if the runway were shortened to
7,160 feet, but said almost 90 percent of commercial aircraft can take off
from either a 7,985-foot runway or a 9,000-foot runway. The FAA's Orlando
district office, though, said air traffic control officials think pilots
would not want to take off from a shorter runway when they could use the
longer runway already there. 

"The fact of the matter is that with a shorter runway, you may not get the
restrictions or not get them for as long as you want," said developer Terry
Stiles, an airport expansion proponent. "You've got to take it seriously."

But Commissioner John Rodstrom, head of the county's airport task force,
said: "I'm not going to be bullied by the FAA."

While the FAA letter has created new questions about what the county should
do, another major issue has been eliminated. Officials had been concerned
about the cost of relocating electric transmission lines as part of the
construction of a southern runway, but Florida Power & Light said the cost
remains largely the same as officials first estimated. 

FP&L estimated the lines could be buried at a cost of $37.5 million or moved
out of the runway's flight path for $5.9 million. The airport had estimated
the work would cost $42 million, but skeptics predicted a higher cost and
demanded the FP&L assessment.

Much of the county's attention is focused on how long a southern runway
should be, but opponents are rallying around a different option -- two
northern runways. Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti and the Audobon Society are
backing that idea and were joined by other environmentalists and south
Broward neighborhood activists in supporting it during Monday's task force
meeting. 

According to the county's consultants, a second runway on the airport's
north side would be less expensive, would create less noise and have less
impact on surrounding wetlands than the south runway. But travel delays
during bad weather could top an hour and the project would be set back about
six years because new plans would have to be drawn up.

The northern runway idea would face heavy opposition from city officials and
neighborhood activists in Fort Lauderdale.

"It would save money and save homes so I just don't understand why it would
not be embraced," Giulianti said. "It may take longer to build, but this
runway would be less destructive. This is doable and makes much more sense."


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