Heathrow expansion and the land adjacent to King George VI reservoir
Hi. Forgive me if this question has an obvious answer but I've trawled the internet and can't seem to find a satisfactory answer.
Much has been written about the woes of Heathrow. First there was the aborted attempts to build a third runway to the north of the current site, then there was Boris Island. Following that there was 'Heathwick'. Now the buzz seems to be about some sort of connection to RAF Northolt. None of these seem to be viable acceptable solutions to the long term capacity issues that Heathrow faces.
A casual glance at a satellite image of Heathrow shows a relatively large expanse of open space to the south-west of the airport. Superimposing the footprint of one of Heathrows existing runways, it seems to me that a third runway would fit relatively comfortably into the space between the M25 and King George VI reservoir. A bit more civil engineering work (i.e. putting sections of the M25 into tunnel and reclaiming land from some of the reservoirs) would, as far as I can tell, provide enough space for at least two further runways of comparable length to the existing ones. These runways, if built, would have a north/south alignment, reducing the impact of extra air traffic on Greater London. Although such an undertaking would be a major construction project, it would still be much smaller undertaking than, for example, creating an artificial island in the Thames.
I'm sure the powers that be have considered and rejected this solution but to me it seems to be the obvious solution. Maybe I'm missing something?
Last edited by Anansis; 31st May 2012 at 14:56.