Hawthorne Press Tribune Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - April 16, 2015 More LAX Closures to Come Commuters Beware: LAX will continue with additional runway closures later this year. Photo courtesy of LA World Airports. Runway Closures Could Increase Aircraft Noise By Brian Simon Last month, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) kicked off the first of a series of phased runway closures at LAX to make improvements to the Runway Safety Areas (RSA). These buffer zones exist in the event an aircraft overshoots, overruns or veers off a runway. The RSAs are usually 1,000 feet by 500 feet at the end and 250 feet from the runway centerline. Construction is set to wrap up this month on the first project, Runway 7R-25L, which is the one closest to El Segundo in the south airfield. The next closures will entail the two north airfields Runway 6L-24R (June and October 2015) and Runway 6R-24L (November 2015-October 2016), followed by the south airfield Runway 7L-25R (October 2016-June 2017). Dates for additional runway and taxiway maintenance work continuing into 2018 will be determined later. LAWA previously completed RSA work at other facilities in Ontario and Van Nuys. The runway closures shift aircraft operations to different parts of the airport and may increase noise for surrounding communities during the construction period. The current runway closure on the south complex moves aircraft to the north to impact Inglewood as well as Westchester, Playa del Rey and other adjacent areas. El Segundo residents may notice additional noise over the 18-month period when the north airfield runways close as more aircraft operations move south. According to the LAWA fact sheet on the project, “increased takeoffs on the south complex can also increase the likelihood of an FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] early turn instruction.” Despite this warning, El Segundo Mayor Suzanne Fuentes thought to take a waitand see approach. “LAWA is in the process of improving all its runways to comply with FAA rules, so that as runways on the north are closed for construction we’ll probably hear more noise just because of increased traffic on the south—but hopefully that will be balanced out when the south runways are closed for the same work and traffic is diverted to the north,” she said. “Also, I don’t think any of these changes will be caused by early turns, but rather just more traffic. There’s no doubt that noise will increase when one of the north runways is shut down, but thankfully it will be temporary.” In addition to noise impacts from the runway shifts, ongoing construction in other areas of LAX now affect airport traffic thanks to sidewalk and vehicle lane closures as well as in-terminal work currently in progress. Restrictions include speed bumps across all lanes of the Upper/Departures Level roadway in front of Terminal 1; a 10-foot, six-inch height clearance limitation through February 2016 on the two curbside Lower/Arrivals Level passenger pick-up lanes from Terminals 4-8 as well as rotating one-lane closures; and a 200-foot-long barricade through the end of 2015 on the Upper/Departures Level curb along the western half of Terminal 1 where motorists can only drop off passengers along the curb before the barricade. Additional work on power conduits, traffic signals and parking structures will result in some restrictions or closures for various vehicle lanes. Some portions of sidewalks in Terminal 1 will also be closed (through 2016) as well as the pedestrian bridge connecting Terminal 3 with Parking Structure 3 (through October of this year). In-terminal renovations resulted in the closures of four gates in Terminal 1 as well as most concessions in the concourse in Terminal 2 (scheduled to reopen this summer). When summer rolls around, passengers may also experience delays or slight increases in wait times aboard aircraft. LAWA posts monthly noise complaint reports on its website, although figures for 2015 do not yet include March, the first month of the southernmost runway closure. The February 2015 report showed 363 total complaints (with 217 of those anonymous and 146 registered by 44 individuals). Four individuals in El Segundo lodged complaints in February, while just one did so in Inglewood. At the end of 2015, a 10-year-old settlement agreement between Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and the cities of El Segundo and Inglewood (as well as other parties) will expire -- and along with it a decade-long commitment to constrain gate capacity and provide funding for residential sound insulation (RSI). Whether a revised agreement will be forged beyond that period is unknown at this point, but City of El Segundo officials hope to negotiate additional RSI dollars from LAWA. In the meantime, LAWA continues to move ahead with its major projects to modernize LAX and to meet federal safety requirements. “Passenger safety remains a priority,” Fuentes said. “We negotiated the south airfield runway agreement to improve safety and we look forward to the improvements being implemented to improve passenger and aircraft safety.” The 2005 legal settlement paved the way for LAWA to proceed with its Southern Airfield Improvement Project that included increasing the distance between the airport’s two south runways (bringing the southernmost one 55 feet closer to El Segundo) and building a parallel taxiway between them to reduce the risk of close calls on the ground between aircraft. The City of El Segundo agreed to drop the pending lawsuit against LAWA in exchange for several mitigations. In addition to providing the RSI monies, LAWA also conceded to a key provision to remove 10 passenger gates at a clip of two per year starting in 2010 in order to reduce the total from 163 to 153 by 2015. The gate constraint would have remained in effect through 2020, with the City having the explicit right to visually count the gates at least until the end of that year. The goal was to ensure the airport could not grow beyond its physical maximum capacity of 78.9 million annual passengers. However the gate reduction was contingent upon LAX exceeding 75 million passengers a year. The numbers fell well short of that target, so the 163 gates stayed put. Even with the settlement expiring and all the gates in operation, Fuentes emphasized that provisions remain in place to limit LAX growth. “It is the City of El Segundo’s position that all LAWA planning is based on a 78.9 million annual passenger cap and any projects that would cause that number to go beyond that cap would require CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] analysis and the opportunity for the City to intercede,” she said. “Two other things to keep in mind are that the overall fleet that is using LAX has gotten substantially quieter over the years, which is good for the community. Secondly, while a higher annual passenger number directly translates into more traffic in and around the airport, LAWA and Metro are investing heavily in improving ground transportation to and from LAX--including the Crenshaw line--connecting the Green Line up to Century and constructing a people mover that will finally connect rail transit to the central terminal area. None of these will eliminate traffic, but they should at least hold the line...” For more information on LAX projects and traffic, go to www.LAXisHappening.com. • Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................2 Classifieds............................6 Community Briefs...............2 Food.......................................8 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals............................4, 6-7 Sports....................................5 Weekend Forecast Friday Sunny 79˚/55˚ Saturday Sunny 79˚/55˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 75˚/55 The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
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