NASA Safety Study at LAX Set for Liftoff
By Art Marroquin, Staff Writer
May 17, 2008
After months of negotiating, NASA Ames Research Center is expected to launch a safety study of the north airfield at Los Angeles International Airport next month, under the terms of a $1.4 million contract up for consideration Monday.
The Board of Airport Commissioners is expected to sign off on a new contract with NASA, just a few months after a similar deal fell apart.
A $2 million contract with NASA approved last August never got off the ground because the agency changed its focus from aviation issues back to space projects, according to LAX officials. Although the initial study was dropped, airport officials continued to negotiate the study's parameters with NASA.
In fact, some aspects of the study are still being hammered out, according to Jonas Dino, a spokesman for NASA Ames Research Center, based just outside San Jose.
"We are still in discussions with LAX," Dino said. "If we can match their interests and capabilities, then we will move forward with the study."
NASA will spend the next year studying five different options for the north airfield at LAX, then conduct a series of simulations aimed at projecting airline traffic through 2020, according to an airport report.
However, NASA will not interpret the data, which was one of the sticking points during the last round of contract negotiations, airport officials said.
Instead, information gleaned from the report will be explained by six university professors who specialize in aviation studies.
The scholars, who come from MIT, University of California Berkeley, George Mason University, Maryland University and Virginia Tech, will be paid $75,000 each to provide "unbiased" feedback on the NASA report, according to an airport report.
"They have no biases, no axes to grind and their recommendations will help guide us when it comes time to decide what to do with the north airfield," said Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose 11th District includes LAX.
"We want a true, honest analysis of the plans going forward with airfield geometry and safety," he said. "It's all about modernization and improving safety at LAX with an unbiased view."
The study is expected to begin next month, with an initial report due next April. NASA's final report would be submitted in June 2009.
The NASA study was sought out after five previous reports completed by aviation consulting groups called for moving one of the northern runways at least 340 feet toward the communities of Westchester and Playa del Rey.
Such a move might wipe out the Westchester business district, which includes a beloved In-N-Out Burger restaurant, according to Denny Schneider, president of the Alliance for a Regional Solution to Airport Congestion.
"I don't want my city to deliver on a promise that could ruin our livelihood," said Schneider, whose group opposes expansion at LAX.
"We prefer that the airport does nothing because we would rather see them spend their limited funds on refurbishing the terminals," Schneider said. "But if they really feel that there's a safety issue, then we want something that is convenient and something that we can be proud of."
As part of the deal with LAX, NASA agreed to study ARSAC's suggestion to simply leave the runways alone, but it's an option that won't likely happen.
The Federal Aviation Administration has long urged airport officials to reconfigure the north airfield as a way to heighten safety. Currently, airplanes maneuvering on the ground must use paths that crisscross the middle of the northern runway, which increases the risk of near misses.
LAX has logged six runway incursions since Oct. 1, all of which have been classified as minor, according to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. Last year, the airport reported eight runway incursions, the most serious of which occurred Aug. 16, 2007, when two jetliners came within 37 feet of each other.
Near misses like that could be avoided if the runways are separated to make room for a centerline taxiway, Gregor said.
"The FAA very strongly feels that the airport should increase space between the north runways," Gregor said.
A new centerline taxiway was built on LAX's south airfield, which had long been cited as a hotbed of runway incursions. A study completed several years ago by NASA eventually led to a $333 million south runway renovation project, which is scheduled for completion next month.
"The centerline taxiway on the south airfield is doing what it is meant to do, and we're hoping for the same type of results on the north airfield," Gregor said.
As part of its study, NASA will also review a plan that calls for moving one of the runways about 340 feet south to make room for a centerline taxiway - an option that was formally supported three years ago by the FAA.
That move would lead to the demolition of Terminals 1, 2 and 3 as part of a plan first proposed by former Mayor James Hahn and subsequently approved by the Los Angeles City Council in 2005. It was shelved after a legal settlement was reached over Hahn's failed airport modernization plan.
"If the airport presents some other plans to us, we'll consider them under the same review we did on Hahn's runway plan," Gregor said.
Another option under consideration by the the airport calls for moving one of the runways 100 feet south to make room for a centerline taxiway, which would also lead to the demolition of three airport terminals.
Yet another option calls for moving the northern-most runway about 100 feet north, which would likely keep local businesses intact.
Separately, the airport commission called for an $8.7million study in January to determine which of those options would best work for the north airfield. Massachusetts-based Camp, Dresser and McKee is expected to submit its report by August 2009.
Whatever design is ultimately selected, construction might not start on the north airfield until 2012, airport officials said earlier this year.
"We're going to trust what these studies say because it's taken too long already," Schneider said. "These reports will determine where it all falls in the end."
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