03/21/2005
Airport runway argument continues to expand
By JOHN M. ROMAN , jroman@delcotimes.com
The proposal to expand a runway to cut down on flight delays at Philadelphia International Airport will have a direct effect on car traffic in the area, too.
And local officials continue to raise their voices against the plan to expand Runway 17-35, saying it will send more planes over residential areas in Delaware County while wreaking havoc with vehicle traffic in the vicinity of the airport.
Traffic patterns on state and city roads adjacent to the proposed runway extension will have to be changed to accommodate the increased air traffic.
Its proponents say expanding Runway17-35 will reduce flight delays by 84 seconds in 2007. Critics wonder if that’s enough to warrant the upheaval the plan likely will cause.
Some Delaware County residents and officials aren’t optimistic about how the expansion plan will affect traffic on these well-traveled roads north and west of the runway.
"Before we’re going to agree to any road closing, any change in traffic patterns and what-not, we want all our traffic signal lights to be synchronized," said Tinicum Manager Norbert Poloncarz.
"Should something go wrong on Bartram Avenue or I-95, all that traffic’s going to be diverted through Tinicum," he said. This happened recently when a city fire truck was involved in a collision near the airport entrance off I-95, he said.
He said he wants the airport "to pick up the tab for all of this so that traffic can flow through town (along state Route 291).
"The FAA only looked at the extension of the runway, but they don’t look at the road and the road closing," Poloncarz said.
"They’re causing the problem, and they have to assume the responsibility. You’re going to see all those jam-ups if something goes wrong."
The FAA is expected to reach a final decision on its recommendation -- preferred Alternative 1, which extends Runway 17-35 by 640 feet to the north and 400 feet to the south -- no less than 30 days after the public comment period closes on the Final Environmental Impact Statement April 11.
"There’s no definitive date," said Jim Peters, public affairs spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration office in Jamaica, N.Y.
"The record of decision is the triggering document that will either tell the airport they can’t do anything if they select the no-action alternative or clears the beginning for the design and planning for the runway extension, if that’s the alternative that we select."
The FAA’s "preferred alternative" cited in its Final EIS released early this month would close a portion of state Route 291 (Industrial Highway) in Philadelphia encircling the Economy Parking Lot and reroute traffic to Bartram Avenue, a city street, from Scott Way to Island Avenue.
If no action is taken, three intersections would exhibit unacceptable levels of service during the morning and/or evening peak hours in 2015 "due to growth in vehicular traffic," the document states.
The preferred alternative would result in a "minor increase in traffic volumes on Bartram Avenue," and improvements at four intersections would improve service over the no-action alternative, the report states.
The design of these improvementswould be coordinated with the Philadelphia Department of Streets, PennDOT and appropriate federal, local and state agencies to ensure that they were designed to "safely accommodate existing and planned bicycle lanes and routes," the EIS concluded in its Surface Transportation recommendations.
When asked for details about the road construction, Peters said, "that’s not our call, the details on how the construction would take place would rest solely with Philadelphia.
"PennDOT has nothing to do with it," he said. "It would be up to the airport to lay out the construction schedule on how it would proceed and how they would handle the (road) traffic.
"If some part of the project that occurs off the airport, it’s up to the City of Philadelphia to work with whoever has responsibility for those roadways," Peters said.
At the FAA public hearing in November in the Eastwick section of Philadelphia, some residents raised questions about how the flow of traffic through their community would be handled, he said.
"And we did give them some information on that," Peters said. "We have no responsibility for state or locally owned roadways off the airport, that’s beyond our oversight."
Meanwhile, Poloncarz pointed out that 60 percent of the airport’s 2,300 acres are located in Tinicum, including the new Overseas Terminal A and part of Terminal B, Departures. He said that the northern portion of Runway 17-35 is in Philadelphia, but the section near the Delaware River is in Tinicum.
"We’re having our engineer, James MacCombie, look into this aspect on what they want to do with Route 291 and find out what our legal rights are in this case," Poloncarz said. "It’s got to be worked out."
PennDOT Assistant Press Secretary Gene Blaum said the proposed road realignment and related work isn’t a PennDOT project and referred a reporter to the airport and city.
However, he did report that the average daily traffic volume on state Route 291 at Bartram Avenue is about 17,200 vehicles and the traffic volume increases on Route 291 at Island Avenue to about 52,000 vehicles.
Blaum said he didn’t have any figures available for Bartram Avenue because it’s a city-owned street.
Mark Pesce, airport public relations manager, declined to discuss any details of the proposed surface transportation options and issued a prepared statement.
"Because the FAA process is so exhaustive, we are inclined to believe that Alternative 1 will have minimal impact to the surrounding communities," the statement read. "If there is an impact, PHL (Philadelphia International Airport) is prepared to take proactive steps to mitigate any impact."
Dan Fee, a spokesman for Philadelphia Mayor John Street, said "the goal is always to be sensitive to the needs and concerns of the community while working toward getting this necessary (airport) expansion done. We will continue to consult and work with the community to find out what is the best way to accomplish both these goals."
U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-7, of Thornbury, whose district includes a por-
tion of Tinicum, as does U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, D-1, of Philadelphia, said, "the fast-tracked solution to this problem, the extension of Runway 17-35, will allow larger aircraft to travel a flight path that has been traditionally used for smaller jet airliners.
"The larger planes will travel over densely populated areas and will undoubtedly raise the noise levels sporadically throughout a 24-hour period, as well as increase the safety risk to our schools, residents and businesses," he said.
"It has been estimated that the extension of Runway 17-35 will cost anywhere from $35 to $56 million in order to only save between .2 to 1.4 minutes of delay per flight," Weldon said.
"It was only a few years ago that the Philadelphia International Airport completed the construction of the jetliner runway that I am now being told is also obsolete," Weldon said. "I am concerned for any resident of Pennsylvania whose quality of life is adversely affected."
Brady’s chief of staff, Stanley White, said that to the best of his knowledge Brady hadn’t read the final EIS document and its options.
"This is the first I’ve heard about that proposal (for road realignment)," he said.
However, White said, "we have received complaints about the impact of the airport from some of the congressman’s Delaware County constituents -- and he takes those complaints seriously."
Mike Levin, of Oakmont, Haverford, an environmental scientist/consultant with the Coalition of Communities Against Runway 17-35, said "this is an issue that is going to affect the people of Delaware County very seriously, but the effects are hidden at this point."
But he said, "that once this gets going, the complaints are going to be many.
"This (final decision) is beginning to look more like a foregone conclusion from the very start," Levin said.
Resolutions opposed to the runway extension were passed last year by Haverford commissioners, Delaware County Council and Upper Darby Council. Millbourne and Norwood councils also sent letters to county council. Several state legislators in the county have also opposed the project.
Judy Rice, a spokeswoman for the coalition, said, "all the people that are going to be impacted by this extension of Runway 17-35 are still urging everyone within the hearing of our voices to contact our U.S. senators and Congressman Curt Weldon to hear the voices of their constituents."
"This very small improvement in (air) traffic delay hardly seems justified to those of us who will see tremendous noise pollution, extreme toxic air pollution and a general deterioration of our quality of life," Rice said.
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03-30-2005, 03:26 PM
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