"O'Hare a dud, Fitzgerald says"

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

O'Hare a dud, Fitzgerald says 
Expansion plan too much money for too little impact 
By Herbert G. McCann
The Associated Press


Retiring U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) said Monday that Chicago's
plan to expand O'Hare International Airport would add less than
one-fifth of the capacity that state and city officials promised when
they first unveiled their plan.

Fitzgerald, long opposed to the expansion, said documents given to the
U.S. Transportation Department by the city earlier this year indicate
the expansion would fail to reduce delays or to meet air transportation
needs for the next 20 years.

It would allow for only about 1.1 million flights a year, an increase of
about 125,000 from the 975,000 projected for O'Hare in 2004, Fitzgerald
said. That is 500,000 flights fewer than the 1.6 million flights per
year projected when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and then-Gov. George
Ryan announced the project in 2001.

Fitzgerald called the proposed $15 billion modernization plan, "very
little bang for very big bucks."

"Almost no one would benefit from Mayor Daley's plan except those lucky
enough to get cut in on the construction contracts," Fitzgerald said.

He said the city's own research showed that - with 1.3 million annual
flights - delays at O'Hare would average over 10 minutes per flight,
worse than the nearly 9 minutes per flight now.

Fitzgerald said the city plan acknowledges it could only substantially
reduce delays only if traffic was limited to 1.1 million flights a year.

What this means is that the O'Hare expansion simply doesn't work," he
said. "If you reduce delays, future demand can't be met. If you meet
future demand, you have gridlock."

An official overseeing the project disagreed with Fitzgerald.

"The expansion will increase capacity at O'Hare," Rosemarie Andolino,
director of the O'Hare Modernization Program, said Monday. "I disagree
with the Senator's numbers."

She said overall delays at O'Hare should decrease by 79 percent.

Telephone calls to a Daley spokeswoman for comment on Fitzgerald's
concerns were not immediately returned.

Fitzgerald said he has made his concerns known to the Transportation
Department. He said he also met with department Inspector General
Kenneth Mead to make sure the Federal Aviation Administration carefully
reviews the cost-benefit, financial and technical concerns he has raised
about the expansion project.

The expansion plan, which has not received FAA approval, calls for
longer and wider runways and taxiways, new terminals, parking spaces for
oversize jets and passenger jet bridges that can reach the doors of the
double-deck A380 scheduled to begin service overseas in 2006 or 2007.

Fitzgerald and others, including U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-2nd) of
Chicago, favor construction of a third airport south of Chicago near
Peotone, which they claim will cost less than a third of rebuilding
O'Hare and would add 10 times the additional capacity.

Fitzgerald also is concerned about the cost of the O'Hare project to the
airlines and their passengers. He said when all bonds for the project
are issued, landing fees per passenger at O'Hare would rise to $26 from
the current price of $8.70.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************