How did Heathrow used to look ?

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by A30yoyo

India Four Two #152... the double triangle or 'Star of David' runway pattern evolved because Middlesex County Council would not or could not move the Perry Oaks sewage plant to permit the E-W runway to run through the middle of the site....accordingly the main runway was laid much closer to the A4 road (the 27L/09R we have now) with crosswind runways 23/05 and 34/16 making up the first triangle....the second inverted triangle allowed a second E-W runway to pass to the south of the sewage plant (the latter finally removed a half century later to permit T5 construction.)

The County Council's intransigence turned out to be of benefit in the end.

With a runway through the middle of Perry Oaks, it would have been very difficult to construct a second parallel runway either to the north or south with sufficient separation to allow even semi-independent operations on both.

accordingly the main runway was laid much closer to the A4 road (the 27L/09R we have now)

I think you mean the present 27R/09L, more usually referred to as 09L/27R (the convention with runways is to put the smaller number first).