City Leaders Don't Trust Arresting System

Even though the FAA is conducting public hearings on the matter this week, Juneau, AK, airport officials say they don't like any of the agency's plans for an emergency arresting system. Airport executives say it's the "wrong technology, wrong place, wrong time."

Juneau International, like other airports its size, must have safety areas at the end of runways. They have to be at least 500-feet wide and 1,000-feet long. But it's the technology used in those safety areas that's at the center of controversy in the Alaskan capital.

Airport officials don't want the high-tech engineered-materials arresting system proposed by the FAA. They'd rather see a traditional safety area made of plain old dirt. That would cost $9.4 million, according to FAA estimates. The engineered-materials system would cost roughly twice that.

At this point, an FAA official said there is no preferred arresting system proposed for Juneau. We want to hear more comments and concerns before identifying a preferred alternative," Ken Wallace, manager of the project's consulting team, told the Juneau Empire.

FMI: www.faa.gov