"Feds give Minneapolis airport $8 million ; Money will go to new north-south runway"

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Feds give airport $8 million ; Money will go to new north-south runway
The Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune


Another dollop of federal dollars to help build a new runway drew a
clutch of officials Tuesday to Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport. 

The transfer of $8 million, announced by Emil Frankel, federal assistant
secretary for transportation policy, was not a surprise, but it was
welcomed by Minnesota Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau and Vicki Grunseth,
chairwoman of the Metropolitan Airports Commission. 

They boarded a bus to tour the unopened strip of pavement that runs
parallel to Cedar Avenue, marked by a large X to warn pilots to stay
away for now. 

The latest federal money is part of an expected $95 million in federal
funds for the runway, plus about $13 million for related work. The total
price will be about $772 million, one of the biggest chunks of the
airport's $3.1 billion expansion. 

Other funds for the project include passenger ticket surcharges, bonds
and commission revenues. 

The cost will be partly offset by about $193 million from reselling and
leasing properties the airport has bought or will buy in the safety zone
off the south end of the runway near Interstate Hwy. 494. Some of those
buildings will be demolished. 

The 8,000-foot north-south runway, the airport's fourth, is labeled
17-35 based on its compass headings of 170 and 350 degrees. It was to
open last year but has been delayed until late next year because of
financial concerns and reduced air traffic after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in 2001. Work this year will include tearing down or moving
large maintenance hangars for Sun Country, Champion and Mesaba airlines.
In addition, the southernmost portion of the runway near I-494 has yet
to be paved. 

Under most conditions, planes using the runway will take off to the
south and land from the south, depending on wind direction. It will
divert some flights from the airport's heavily used parallel runways,
reducing jet noise over south Minneapolis. 

But noise levels there are expected to rise again eventually, as air
traffic increases. Meanwhile, people living south of the airport will be
subject to more noise than they have been used to. 

The commission says the project will let the airport handle 640,000
takeoffs and landings a year without delays. That compares with 480,000
without delays that the airport can handle on the three existing
runways. Last year, the airport handled 510,382 takeoffs and landings,
still down from the peak of 523,170 in 2000. 

Frankel said new runways are an important way to expand airport capacity
because no new major U.S. airports have been built since the Denver
airport opened in 1995. He said that other airports' expansions have
been delayed for decades and that MSP's new runway will help it "make a
big difference in the national system."


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