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Article Excerpt
Clearing confusion on the O'Hare plan
It's time to clear up confusion about the master plan for O'Hare Airport that Chicago submitted to the FAA on Feb. 6. The master plan represents all that could be built over the next 20 years. It does not represent what must be built. The master plan is what the name suggests: a plan. In fact, it contained little new information and simply compiled plans and costs of existing projects into one document.
Neither the cost nor scope has changed. The cost remains $6.6 billion in 2001 dollars. The program still includes one new runway, the relocation of three existing runways and the extension of two others. The program also includes a 1.5-million-square-foot terminal complex on the west side of the airport that will include new gates, additional parking facilities, a secure people mover system, on-airport access roads and new cargo and maintenance facilities.
The program will be funded by airline-backed bonds, passenger facility charges and federal airport improvement program funds. No state or local tax dollars will be used.
The master plan includes capital projects outside the scope of the modernization program. Those include $4.1 billion for O'Hare's ongoing capital improvement program, which involves ongoing maintenance projects such as runway repairs, terminal upgrades and security enhancements.
O'Hare's capital improvement program would be implemented by the Department of Aviation with or without the modernization program.
Another such project found in the master plan is the World Gateway Program, which was announced in 1999 and makes it possible to build additional gates and terminals on the east side of the airport for $2.6 billion if they are needed. Delay problems can only be solved by modernizing. By doing so, the modernization program creates 195,000 jobs and $18 billion in additional economic activity each year. We reduce overall delays by 79 percent, and bad weather delays by 95 percent. Airlines and their passengers save a combined $750 million annually in reduced delay costs. The benefits of modernizing O'Hare far outweigh the costs.
However, if we do nothing, O'Hare loses flights to Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta and Denver. We are confident that once the FAA completes its regulatory process, all the delay reductions, capacity enhancements and economic benefits associated with the modernization program will be realized. If you wish to learn more, please visit www.ohare.com.
Rosemarie S. Andolino
executive director
O'Hare Modernization
Program
Chicago
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