Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
For example, the 2011 CIP included provision for all the post-Cranford taxiway and runway exit works, for completion in April 2012, but the decision was taken in November last year to freeze the planning application because it could involve the local authority consulting Cranford residents while aircraft were already departing over their heads during the Operational Freedom trials.
It really is amazing that there are still, in 2012, not a full set of runway exits in place at Heathrow for 09R, after all these years. It's not as if there have not been plenty of landings on that runway over the years, what with periodic single runway ops (when rapid exit is surely essential), dual landing between 0600-0700, and all sorts of other instances. Any other European country with their key national aviation infrastructure, would have done this for the sake of some resilience over minimum expenditure, years before.