Port Authority officials explain upcoming projects and potential impacts at Monday's TVASNAC meeting.
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This story was written by Tara Conry.
Remember when the Bay Runway at JFK airport was shut down for 120 days in 2010
for a major reconstruction project? Well, the Port Authority is planning a
similar job on 4L/22R that is expected to start in 2013 and shut down these
runways in 2014.
At Monday's meeting of the Town-Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement
Committee, Ralph Tragale, assistant director of Aviation for the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Jim Steven, manager of Physical Plant
and Redevelopment at JFK airport, described the minor projects they have
planned for the rest of 2012 and shed light on the major work slated for 2013
and beyond.
Construction is winding down at JFK airport, Tragale said, and the Port
Authority has no plans to take any runways out of service for the rest of the
calendar year for any extended amount of time. In October, Runway 4R will be
closed for one day for a community clean-up project, 13L and 4L will be closed
for two nights for runway grooving work, and 4R will be shut down by the FAA
for at least five nights to work on its approach lights. There's always the
potential that the Port Authority may need to close other runways for regular
lighting and pavement repairs as needed, but these result in very short-term
closures, Steven explained.
But in 2013 the Port Authority plans to begin its next major rehabilitation
project, which is expected to cost nearly $500 million. As it did with 13R/22L,
also known as the “Bay Runway,” the asphalt base (which needs to be rehabbed
every 7-10 years) on 4L/22R will be replaced with concrete, which has a 40-year
lifespan. (Tragale put to rest rumors that the contractors botched the Bay
Runway concrete job.) Similarly, 4L/22R will also be widened to 200 feet.
“The project is driven by runway safety issues,” Steven said, explaining that a
Congressional mandate was issued to make all runway safety areas fully
compliant with Federal Aviation Administration standards by 2015.
Currently, 4L/22R lacks a sufficient safety area at its south end, which is
needed in case a plane overruns the runway. But since the Port Authority cannot
extend the runway further south, because it would encroach on Gateway National
Park, an additional 460 feet of pavement will be added to the its north end to
achieve compliance.
The Port Authority expects construction on this project to begin this spring,
with most of the work concentrated on the north end. The runway will remain in
service in 2013, but it will be closed for most of 2014, as construction
continues throughout the spring, summer and fall.
“I have to have it open by Nov. 15, 2014,” Steven said. When the Bay Runway was
under construction, the Port Authority reached out to JFK’s major carriers to
ask them to reduce their schedules to minimize the impact the closure would
have on residents living under the runways that had to take on the flights that
could no longer use 13R/22L.
“None of them want to reduce unless they all reduce … so it has to be
cooperative effort,” Tragale said. “Our experience with the Bay Runway was very
good and I expect it to be similar.”
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