Lame, lame, lame. You'd think the architects would account for this...
From the Los Angeles Times:
Remodeled Bradley terminal would create blind spots, officials acknowledge
Air traffic controllers say it would be unsafe. LAX officials say modern technology will solve the problem.
By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times
November 13, 2010
A multistory centerpiece of the modernization plan for Los Angeles International Airport would block the direct view of air traffic controllers for a busy portion of the complex, including gates, aircraft ramps and taxiways, officials acknowledge.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic controllers, the blind spots would be created by the $1.5-billion remodeling of the Tom Bradley International Terminal. The project would dominate the west end of the terminal area and have a roof line ranging from five to nine stories high.
"Basically, they will create a giant billboard in the middle of the seventh-busiest airport in the world," said Mike Foote, an air traffic controller at LAX and chapter president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. "The backside of the terminal will have a bunch of new gates. We won't be able to see any of them. It is the same for the ramps and taxiways."
For almost two years, officials with the FAA and Los Angeles World Airports, which operates LAX, have been assessing the visibility problems and developing possible solutions.
Airport officials say the planned installation of radar, laser-guided aircraft docking technology and closed-circuit television cameras should make it possible for controllers to track and guide planes safely through areas they can't see directly.
They added that a new taxiway that is visible from the control tower would be built well beyond the Bradley terminal and that small ramp towers staffed with controllers also could be constructed to monitor aircraft coming into and out of the eight gates planned for the terminal's west side.
"We will be relying on the next generation of technology," said Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports. "It will give pilots and air traffic controllers more information and enhance the capabilities of everyone involved. It's better to rely on a plethora of tools. We are not taking out the human eye."
The controller's association has suggested building a second control tower as a way to maintain good visibility west of the Bradley, an approach Lindsey called "yesterday's technology" and more suited to the association's interests of having a new facility that would need more controllers.
Read the rest by clicking
here.
Prev
Linear Mode
