"Report says extension plan would improve safety at Burbank, Calif., airport"

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Report says extension plan would improve safety at Burbank, Calif., airport
The Los Angeles (CA) Daily News


BURBANK, Calif. -- Extending a taxiway at the Bob Hope Airport as part of a
proposed agreement with Burbank would make the airport safer but not allow
for more flights, a report to be released today says.

The extended taxiway would allow general-aviation aircraft to quickly get
off the runway, instead of taxiing back along a segment of it and
potentially blocking other planes from landing.

"It's primarily a safety improvement. It really does not do much in terms of
changing the capacity of the airport, but it makes it easier for the air
traffic controllers to do their job," said Dan Feger, deputy executive
director of the airport authority.

The report was prepared by the airport authority in cooperation with the
city. It is required by the California Environmental Quality Act. 

The report evaluates other proposed changes at the airport, such as the
acquisition and rearrangement of parking lots, that would be undertaken if a
proposed agreement with the city is adopted.

Because of concerns about airport expansion, the authority was barred for
the past two years from doing significant improvements, such as extending a
taxiway, without Burbank City Council approval.

That moratorium expired last month, and Burbank and the airport are working
on an agreement that would replace it. The agreement would prevent a new
terminal from being built there for 10 years but allow the airport, at least
temporarily, to retain land intended for its construction.

The extended taxiway would be built along the east-west runway at the
airport. It would cost between $3 million and $4 million, Feger said.

To extend the taxiway, the airport would need to move a parking lot, which
would cost another $3 million.

"The 1,650-foot-long section of taxiway would result in a safer and more
efficient operation of the airfield at the airport," the report states.

But Feger said that even if the airport becomes more efficient because of
the addition, it will not increase its capacity to receive flights. Flights
are spaced out enough to allow enough time for planes, if nothing goes
wrong, to backtrack on the runway before another plane lands.

Among the other changes at the airport outlined in the report are the
proposed $42 million acquisition of Star Park, a privately owned parking lot
near the terminal. An underpass would be built to allow for the movement of
cars under a terminal loop road, allowing valet drivers to take cars to what
is now the Star Park lot.

The report also looks at a project to realign the intersection of Hollywood
Way and Thornton Avenue to make the entrance safer. That project would take
up to a 1 years to complete, and the airport initially proposed to pay for
$300,000 of the project. The exact cost of the project is undetermined.

Airport officials contend that the acquisition of the Star Park lot will
eliminate the need for valet drivers to take cars between the terminal and a
lot several blocks north on Hollywood Way, cutting down on air pollution.
But City Councilman Todd Campbell said the airport should not have been
allowed to do that anyway.

"It hasn't been enforced. At least to the extent where I think it should
be," Campbell said, adding that "to say that there's a benefit because
you're not using something you're not supposed to be using is questionable
in my mind."

The public will have until Oct. 18 to comment on the report. On Oct. 25, the
airport commission could vote on whether to approve the report, and then it
would go to the City Council.


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