Runway Expansion Set

By Alyson Crean, Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon

Apr. 4–In the four years expansion of the Key West International Airport runway has been under discussion, a proposed experimental material to make airport runways safer has become de rigueur.

“At first the [Federal Aviation Administration] was not a big fan of EMAS,” Monroe County Airports Director Peter Horton said. “It was a new material. But in the last few years, they have really embraced it.”

Engineered Materials Arresting System, or EMAS, is a composite that will allow the airport to extend safety overruns on its runway with minimal impact to nearby wetlands. And though local environmentalists may not have fully embraced the idea of extending the safety areas at either end of the runway, they are pleased the material will be used.

“We were very happy that we got the county and the FAA to go for EMAS,” Last Stand board member Dennis Henize said. “We would have preferred not to have the water disturbed, but a compromise has been reached.”

A final draft of an environmental assessment addressing the runway extension comes before the public early next month, the final step in what Horton says is a necessary safety feature for the dozens of landings the airport sees daily.

The extension will affect a little more than eight acres of wetlands, according to the assessment.

In exchange for clearing some mangroves on the west end of the airport and filling part of a five-acre salt pond on the east end, the airport will provide more than 20 acres of mitigation. Horton said that would include reconfiguring the existing pond around the eastern extension. Though that area will be partially filled, he said, it would not be paved over.

Last Stand, a Key West-based environmental group, along with a group calling itself Save Our Salt Ponds, dogged the early years of this proposal. The wetlands surrounding the airport provide habitat and nesting areas for numerous species of birds.

Some residents feared the extension would mean longer runways and thus larger planes.

On a tour of the runways Monday, however, Horton pointed out that the existing fringe lighting that marks the end of the runway would not be moved.

Originally, the FAA pressed for safety margins that would have eaten away more than 25 acres of the wetlands. The EMAS system, which is a sloped gravel-like surface that slows out-of-control planes quickly, needs only a third of the distance necessary with a standard safety margin for stopping a plane.

“The latest estimate for the work is approximately $12 million,” Horton said. “The FAA will pay 95 percent of that through discretionary funding.”

The other 5 percent will be paid from passenger fees that have already been collected, he said.

The timeframe is not clear on the work, though Horton said the mitigation work would be done at the same time the runway margins are extended.

In the meantime, the new McCoy Terminal Complex is fast becoming a reality. County Engineer David Koppel said the $30 million project is slated for completion in July 2008.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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