"Airport alternatives don't include runway reduction"

Wednesday, November 3, 2004 

Commentary
My Turn: Airport alternatives don't include runway reduction 
By PATTI SULLIVAN 
The Juneau (AK) Empire


There has been a fair amount of public debate in the past few months
concerning runway safety area improvements for Juneau International Airport.
Recent articles and letters to the editor, and testimony at Assembly
meetings, suggest people are unclear about the alternatives the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) is considering for the Juneau International
Airport (JIA). This column is intended to provide clarity concerning those
plans.

The FAA is charged with aviation safety, and the implementation of
sufficient runway safety area at our nation's airports is one of FAA's top
priorities. The purpose of the runway safety area is to reduce the risk of
damage to an aircraft that lands short or overshoots the runway ends, or
veers off the sides of the runway. The FAA has developed national design
standards and criteria for runway safety areas based on the size and types
of aircraft that use an airport. The runway safety areas at Juneau and many
other airports do not meet FAA's safety standard.

To meet the national standards at the airport about 750 feet of additional
runway safety area would have to be constructed on each runway end.
Construction of the runway safety areas and other actions being considered
for the airport (such as new hangars and apron and other facilities) would
have substantial impact on the human environment. For this reason FAA is
preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) to assess the magnitude of
the environmental impacts, and to determine if there are alternatives for
runway safety area that could achieve the safety objectives while minimizing
affects on habitat, wetlands, recreationists and so forth. The EIS considers
a wide range of options for runway safety are that include shifting runway
thresholds, moving the runway, and the use of engineered materials arresting
systems as an equivalent method of achieving the desired safety objective.
  
On Dec. 12, 2003, the president signed into law "Vision 100 - Century of
Aviation Reauthorization Act." Section 502 of the Act, "Runway Safety Areas
of Vision 100," states that "An airport or operator in the State of Alaska
shall not be required to reduce the length of a runway or declare the length
of a runway less than the actual pavement length to meet standards of the
Federal Aviation Administration applicable to runway safety areas." Juneau
has informed the FAA that any runway safety area alternative which shortens
the runway would not be acceptable. As a result, the FAA cannot implement
alternatives that would reduce runway length.

The EIS will present the proposed actions and alternatives under
consideration for the runway safety area and other airport needs. The EIS
will describe, in detail, the five alternatives that FAA considers prudent
and feasible to meet the needs for the runway safety area at the airport.
These alternatives will have different operational characteristics, and each
will present different environmental and economic benefits and possibly
drawbacks. Rest assured, however, that none of the alternatives would
shorten the runway.

The FAA plans on releasing a draft EIS for public review sometime in late
winter. We look forward to an open discussion about the EIS and future
activities at the airport with the citizens of Juneau.

. Patti Sullivan lives in Anchorage and is the Federal Aviation
Administration's environmental program manager for Airports Division,
Alaskan Region.


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