"Safer runway routes proposed"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Safer runway routes proposed 
Plan would increase safety without disturbing roads
By SCOTT WILLIAMS
The Waukesha (WI) Journal-Sentinel


Waukesha - Faced with inadequate safety buffer zones around the main runway
at Crites Field, airport officials have identified a corrective strategy
that would allow them to avoid relocating roads and disturbing nearby
businesses.

The issue has vexed Crites officials for years because the county-owned
airport fails to meet federal standards for guarding against wayward
aircraft skidding into traffic on Silvernail Road or Pewaukee Road.

Possible solutions in the past included relocating roads or building
underground tunnels for motorists to avoid a conflict with aircraft traffic.
But neighborhood opposition and the projected cost for such dramatic
overhauls prompted airport officials to look for a simpler fix.

With the federal government's blessing, officials now are considering a
strategy that they say would allow them to improve safety without any
construction outside the airport's current boundaries.

Crites manager Keith Markano said the federal government has relaxed its
requirements for improved runway buffers, partly because of the cost of
retrofitting airports nationwide.

"They changed the criteria to make it a little bit easier for airports in
our position," Markano said.

The new solution, which has not yet been endorsed by Crites administrators,
would involve mostly operational changes intended to give aircraft more room
to maneuver through a process known in aviation as "declared distances."

Such a strategy still would require expanding the main runway from 5,700
feet to 6,500 feet, but the biggest changes otherwise would be in how
aircraft are routed and cleared for takeoff or landing in Waukesha.

Crites has no commercial airline service, but it is home to about 200
private aircraft that record about 100,000 takeoffs and landings annually.

For business owners near the airport, the new approach to better runway
safety comes as a relief.

Gina Rhodes, owner of Taste of Italy restaurant on Blue Mound Road, said
converting Pewaukee Road into an underground tunnel, as proposed in the
past, would disrupt her customers.

Although she was unfamiliar with the "declared distances" option, Rhodes
said she and other business owners would welcome any alternative that did
not require changing the flow of street traffic significantly.

"I think that would make everybody along here happy," she said.

Members of the Waukesha Airport Commission today will consider the first
step - asking state transportation officials to approve a related change in
future plans for Crites, the Waukesha County airport. That would be followed
by an official county decision to pursue the new strategy and, ultimately,
to request federal funding.

Less expensive
Even though the project would cost about $5 million, Markano said it would
be cheaper than any other option.

Tunneling under roads would have cost more than $20 million, which Markano
said was one reason the Federal Aviation Administration in late 2005 agreed
to more widespread use of "declared distances" as a method of improving
their runway safety buffers.

"That became available to us, thank goodness," he said.

Waukesha city officials, who have also expressed concerns about the possible
upheaval for road reconstruction, expressed support for the new approach.

Paul Feller, the city's public works director, called it "an acceptable
alternative" that would leave business owners in the area undisturbed.

Asked about establishing the needed level of safety at the airport, Feller
said: "I rely on the experts for that. If the FAA is saying that it's OK, I
have to rely on that."

   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php

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