"Permanent perimeter barriers to go up at Phoenix airport"

Monday, October 17, 2005

Permanent barriers to go up at airport 
By Ginger D. Richardson
The Arizona Republic


PHOENIX - The city plans to spend more than $70,000 on new concrete barriers
to shore up the perimeter fence at Sky Harbor International Airport.

Officials set up hundreds of the blockades along portions of the fence line
after a June security breach in which a man in a stolen truck drove onto the
airfield.

However, many of those walls were rented in order to get them in place
quickly. The city has now opted to buy new blockades that could be put in
place permanently.  

The City Council will vote Wednesday on the proposed contract with Pre-Cast
Manufacturing Co.

Officials say it will cost the same amount of money to buy the barriers as
it does to rent them for one month.

Altogether, Phoenix could spend nearly $16 million on improvements. A panel
charged with evaluating the fence line also has recommended new cable
restraints and guardrails, as well as the installation of a hydraulic
barrier that could be raised in an instant if a vehicle tried to break
through a gate.

The proposed changes are a result of the June incident in which a man drove
through an open gate into a fire station parking lot and smashed through a
wrought-iron fence to get onto the taxiway. He sped past several
passenger-filled airplanes before crashing into a second fence west of
Terminal 2. More than 50 flights were delayed. The suspect was indicted in
July on charges of auto theft, aggravated assault and unlawful flight.


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