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Midway runway update planned to slow jets
April 6, 2006
BY: MONIFA THOMAS Transportation Reporter
By the end of the year, the City of Chicago could begin building beds of crushable concrete on runways at Midway Airport to halt planes that have overshot their landings, city aviation officials said Wednesday.
Earlier this week, the city submitted a proposal to the Federal Aviation Administration to install the concrete beds at the end of four Midway runways. Four months ago, 6-year-old Joshua Woods was killed when a Southwest jet slid off a slick runway at the airport and crushed his family's car.
The beds would be made of lightweight concrete bricks designed to collapse under the weight of an aircraft, safely slowing or stopping it within a few hundred feet. The FAA has already approved similar aircraft-arresting systems at 14 airports.
FAA approval sought
The city's plan is a departure from statements Mayor Daley made days after the fatal Dec. 8 crash. Then, Daley said major changes at Midway weren't needed to improve safety.
But as early as last fall, the city was reviewing ways to create a better safety zone at Midway ahead of new federal regulations, said Erin O'Donnell, managing deputy aviation commissioner at Midway.
Midway is one of 300 commercial airports across the country that do not have a 1,000-foot clearance zone at the end of the runway, which the FAA considers a margin of safety. Those airports have until 2015 to extend their safety protection zones or build other safeguards, the FAA says.
Other options at Midway would have been to shorten the runways to provide a larger buffer zone or acquire more land to build one. But the concrete beds were the only practical alternative that would not involve cutting airport operations or bulldozing hundreds of homes and businesses, O'Donnell said.
Pending FAA approval, the city could begin installing the buffers by the end of the year. The city estimates a cost of up to $40 million.
FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro called the city's proposal "a good first step," but more analysis needs to be done.
Of particular concern for the FAA is the fact a standard emergency arresting system is about 600 feet long, while the ones proposed for Midway range between 200 and 300 feet, Molinaro said. "We want to see some detailed analysis about what kind of planes it can truly stop and at what speeds, to see if it's even viable.".
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