O'Hare Opponents Question More Roads To Airport

February 11, 2004

O'Hare Opponents Question More Roads To Airport
Des Plaines Journal, IL

Saying expansion is not possible without better
highway transportation to the airport, forces fighting
to block O'Hare expansion wonder if there will be
enough funds for more highway access to the mammoth
facility which is a component of the $14.8 billion
expansion plan.

The Suburban O'Hare Commission (SOC) representatives
claim western highway access to the airport is in
jeopardy. They say Chicago officials are distancing
themselves from funding more highway access and
federal funding may be reduced for that specific
component of the project. 

In a Feb. 3 aviation trade publication, the executive
director of Chicago's O'Hare Modernization Program
said roadway plans to ease traffic access are
desirable but not necessary.

Also, in a Jan. 30 letter from O'Hare Modernization
Program Deputy Director Chris Arman to Downers Grove,
Arman said more highway access could be simply
accommodated with a 300-foot wide corridor on the west
side of existing airport property "if and when this
roadway is built."

Officials hoped the airport expansion plan, which
includes reconfiguring an existing runway and adding
two more, could double O'Hare operations by 2015. But
newly-released estimates show that capacity may only
increase by about one-third. 

Further, without more roads to the airport, critics
contend the expansion would be a disaster.

The latest price estimate for O'Hare expansion has
more than doubled from $6.6 billion to $14.8 billion.
This figure does not include more roadway work. These
costs are included in the Airport Master Plan released
Friday.

Elk Grove Mayor Craig Johnson, SOC vice chair, said
funding difficulties underscore the impracticality of
O'Hare Modernization. He said he has been asking for
the master plan for four years.

"This is a costly boondoggle that will not help
aviation problems...Chicago has been hiding this
information. They knew if they released this
information [$14.6 billion estimate], it would never
work," he said.

"The costs of the expansion are so high, and the money
for the improvements are so scarce, it can only hurt,
not help the airport," added Johnson. "Even if Chicago
found the money to build the airport, the high costs
of using it would drive today's cost-conscious
airlines elsewhere."

But city official argue modernization is needed to
reduce delays.

O'Hare handled 931,000 flights in 2003. That figures
is up from 922,817 in 2002, 911,917 in 2001 and
908,989 in 2000. Aviation officials estimate the
project would reduce delays by 79%. 

According to the O'Hare Modernization Program Website,
modernization could create 195,000 new jobs and add
$18 billion to the local economy.

Johnson also alluded to a now defunct $3.6 billion
plan called World Gateway that would have increased
O'Hare capacity. The plan died when American Airlines
and United Airlines pulled out, saying they could not
afford to fund the improvements.

The expansion would require the purchase of 433 acres
of land in Des Plaines, Chicago, Bensenville and Elk
Grove.

"Cutbacks in federal funding could be devastating for
Chicago's plans. Its primary source of funding was
supposed to be airlines that use O'Hare, but one went
bankrupt and the other was in such bad shape that it
pulled out of a $3.6 billion plan to build new
terminals and other facilities at O'Hare," said
Bensenville Village President John Giles, who is
active in SOC. "Federal Airport Improvement Funds were
supposed to be another source of funding, and now that
too is jeopardized. Whatever funding plan Chicago now
secretly entertains is a one-legged stool, at best."

The FAA is expected to approve technical aspects of
O'Hare modernization by the end of the year. Last
summer, the FAA created the Chicago Area Modernization
Program Office in Des Plaines to work this issue.


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