Airport Commission Approves More Runway Safety Lights
By Art Marroquin, Staff Writer
February 16, 2010
More stoplights will be installed along 10 high-speed taxiways and one runway to improve safety at Los Angeles International Airport under a deal approved Tuesday by the airport commission.
The Federal Aviation Administration will design, maintain and pay for the entire light system, which will warn pilots when it's safe to enter or cross a runway, airport officials said.
Plans call for embedding runway status lights at six more taxiway intersections and the inner runway on the south airfield. Lights will also be installed at four additional taxiways on the north airfield.
Construction is expected to begin in October and the new system will be operating by February 2012.
"The installation of this final phase of status lights will mark another milestone in our efforts to make LAX the safest airport in the nation," said Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that operates LAX.
Airport officials and the FAA switched on a set of lights last year at five taxiways and the inner runway on the north airfield, along with three taxiways on the south airfield. The system is operated by a ground radar system that automatically triggers the red lights.
The deal comes just days before NASA Ames Research Center is expected to release a study that will help guide the fate of LAX's north airfield, where planes must use paths that crisscross the middle of runways.
Five previous studies by aviation consultants called for shifting the northernmost runway about 340 feet closer to homes and businesses in Westchester and Playa del Rey. Proponents say the separation would make room for a centerline taxiway that would allow jetliners to slow down after landing, similar to a project completed nearly two years ago on the south airfield.
Airport-area residents oppose the plan and suggest that safety could be heightened by adding more runway stoplights.
The idea of installing runway safety lights was first posed two years ago, when Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl met with former FAA Administrator Marion Blakey. Just before the pair met, Rosendahl had told reporters that LAX's northernmost runway would be moved "over my dead body."
Blakey "looked at me in the face and said she had a plot available for me," Rosendahl said with a laugh.
Rosendahl has not yet reviewed NASA's study, but said he anticipated the results.
"It was an open process and I look forward to that report," he said. "But the status lights really do go a long way toward improving things down there."
Separately, the airport commission on Tuesday agreed to sell another $2 billion worth of bonds to help pay for a series of construction projects and refinance existing debt for the nation's third-busiest airport.
The move comes three months after the airport sold $1.28 billion worth of bonds to finance a capital improvement program expected to cost more than $5 billion through 2016.
LAX currently has $1.66 billion worth of outstanding debt, according to an airport report. The latest bond sale will lead to significantly higher debt service payments, but the airport's revenue stream is expected to cover the increase, the report said.
"The airport's revenues are much more than what's needed to cover the bond debts, but if that slips, you will see the bond ratings drop and interest rates increase," said aviation consultant Jack Keady of Playa del Rey.
"If that happens, the airport may be forced to raise landing rates and rentals faster than expected and that could lead to a push-back from the airlines, who want to know why they have to pay for this expensive project," Keady said.
"It's a financial issue worth keeping a close eye on."
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