Mon, Aug 30, 2004
Renovations To Begin Week After Mardis Gras 2005
Officials at Louis Armstrong
International Airport in New Orleans (LA) plan to shut down their
longest runway just after Mardis Gras next year. The reason? A $50
million construction project to rebuild the east-west runway -- the
first major renovation on that runway in more than 20 years --
shore up the runway near a traffic tunnel and install a new
floodgate in the hurricane levee.
If you've ever flown into MSY, either as a pilot or passenger,
you might well remember that big bump in the runway. It's caused by
a traffic tunnel that was built under the runway in the 1980s. The
portion of runway over the tunnel was built on pilings. The rest of
the runway was not. Since the part without pilings has subsided
faster than the part with pilings, work crews have been forced to
bridge the difference -- twice.
"Rather than try to continue to patch it up, we decided it would
be better to rebuild it," Aviation Director Roy Williams told the
New Orleans Times-Picayune.
The project will also raise the East Jefferson hurricane
protection levee and repair a partially-collapsed drainage
ditch.
The feds are kicking in $10 million toward completion of the
project and New Orleans city officials hope that number will rise
dramatically before it's all said and done.
"This grant demonstrates the FAA's confidence and dedication to
the professional management at Louis Armstrong New Orleans
International Airport," Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA) told
the Times-Picayune. "It represents the FAA's commitment to aviation
safety at Louis Armstrong and maximum utilization of this facility
as the long-term aviation center in metropolitan New Orleans."
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