Rep. Harman says changing LAX runway configuration 'unnecessary'

Feb. 26, 2010 | By KPCC Wire Services | KPCC

A Southland congresswoman said today she sees no need to move a runway at Los Angeles International Airport that a study concluded was unnecessary, but that FAA officials think is a good idea.

"Following conversations with local leaders and careful review of the North Airfield Study's Executive Summary released last week, I am struck by the findings that the north airfield is `extremely safe' and the risk to passengers minimal,'' Rep. Jane Harman, D-Los Angeles, said in a statement.

"Like Mayor (Antonio) Villaraigosa, safety has always been my chief concern -- and I agree it should be the only factor in considering whether to move the runways,'' she said. "Unnecessary and destructive incursions into neighboring communities in the name of `operational efficiency' are no longer credible.''

For safety reasons, airport officials proposed shifting the northernmost runway as much as 340 feet to the north, which nearby residents said that would create noise and other problems for them.

A study by a panel of academics and the NASA Ames Research Center that was released a week ago concluded that moving the runway was not necessary. The study found that with the runway's present configuration, a fatal runway collision would occur once every 200 years and cause one death for every 150 million LAX passengers.

"That level of risk is low even relative to the exceptional safety of U.S. passenger aviation,'' the report stated.

While noting that changing the airfield alignment could technically improve safety, the report stated that "because the baseline level of collision risk is so low, reducing that risk by a substantial percentage is of limited practical importance.''

The Federal Aviation Administration disagreed, however.

In a statement issued when the study results were released last week, the FAA said "multiple studies by airport design and layout experts ... concluded that reconfiguring the south and north airfields are the best safety and efficiency solutions.''

According to the FAA, "changes to LAX's south airfield achieved their intended purpose and dramatically improved runway safety. Assertions that the north airfield is safe enough now are not an argument against doing everything possible to make it even safer.''

The city's Airport Commission requested the study in 2007, with members saying they wanted to improve the safety of the North Airfield.

"All things considered, the panel cannot construct a compelling argument on safety grounds alone for reconfiguring the North Airfield,'' the study concluded.

Villaraigosa said last Friday that his office would carefully review the report, but that based on its findings, "we are not moving the runway.''

Harman said airport officials "should now focus on sensible modernization strategies at LAX. For too long, progress at the airport has been stalemated, creating a challenging passenger experience and increasingly inadequate infrastructure.''

On Monday, construction began on a $1.2 billion expansion of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX, which is one of the largest public works projects in the history of Los Angeles.

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