Airfield Additions

Newest Runway in Nearly Four Decades to Open at O’Hare

by Paula Widholm

After two years of construction work, three major elements of the $6.6 billion Modernization Program at O’Hare International Airport are opening—the extension of an existing runway, a new far north runway and a new north air traffic control tower.

The 3,000-ft extension of Runway 10L-28R opened Sept. 25, bringing the total length of that runway to 13,000 ft and making it capable of handling heavy jets that require a longer-than-usual runway.

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Runway 9L-27R— 7,500 ft long by 150 ft wide—is set to open Nov. 20 on the north side of the airport. On the same day, the new 269-ft-tall North Control Tower to support 9L-27R will open.

“In this day some airports have challenges getting one runway built, but we have three major elements opening at once,” says Rosemarie Andolino, executive director of the OMP.

Obstacles

However, the OMP has encountered some turbulence. A major part of phase one is construction of Runway 10C-28C on the southern end of the airport, which has been delayed by legal suits brought by the city of Bensenville and owners of a cemetery located in its path.

But concrete is being poured for the new 10,600-ft Group VI Runway 10C-28C, which will be 200 ft wide, 50 ft wider than the average runway. Next year, “we’ll be building the east and west ends,” Andolino says.

The cemetery will remain untouched for now in the middle of the runway. Two paving contracts—one for 10C eastern end and one for 10C western end will be awarded before the end of this year. A bid is also on the street for the relocation of two cargo buildings on the airport’s south end.

“We’re doing it out of sequence in order to continue the program,” Andolino says.

OMP has acquired 555 out of 605 parcels needed to continue the westward expansion of the airport. Of those 555 parcels, 540 are vacant. The remaining contingent is noisily fighting the airport’s expansion.

“There’s still litigation by the city of Bensenville, but we’ve won every case thus far,” Andolino says. “The only thing that’s impacted us is time. That’s why we’ve done workarounds and relocated rail lines and a ditch.”

Ultimately, the Union Pacific Railroad tracks will run through the parcels acquired in Bensenville. But that neighborhood is off limits while litigation goes on, and so the plan was modified to allow interim relocation of the railway on airport property.

The Goal

In 2001, a $6 billion budget for the capital investment plan was put in place. Inflation over the years now has made that figure rise, but “the capital project and program for the airport, which is the new infrastructure and rebuilding the airport, stands at $6.6 billion in 2001 dollars,” Andolino says.

The price of the OMP will be paid through federal grants, ticket fees and loans backed by airport revenue, such as gate fees. The target completion date is 2014, in time for the 2016 Olympics if Chicago lands the games.

The OMP goal is to increase the airport’s capacity to more than 1.2 million operations annually, up from the present capacity of 927,000, and decrease delays from an average of 24 minutes to six minutes. Overall, four runways will be added and two decommissioned in order to give the airfield parallel configuration similar to the one at Dallas Fort-Worth.

It also involves adding a new western terminal that creates a new entrance on the west side of the airport, as well as a new North Control Tower and a new South Control Tower for a total of three active control towers.

As of September, contractors have moved more than 14 million cu yds of dirt and paved more than 456,000 sq yds of concrete for runway and taxiway projects. The OMP has awarded more than $772 million in construction contracts thus far. A total of up to $766 million in new construction bid packages will be advertised in the next year.

The Future

Construction of 10C-28C and the relocation of the cemetery, railroad, two cargo buildings and Irving Park Road will be second-phase projects at O’Hare. Also, design work will begin next year for this completion phase, which includes extending an existing runway (Future Runway 9R-27L), building two new parallel runways (Future Runways 9C-27C and 10R-28L) and closing existing Runways 14L-32R and 14R-32L.

Based on market conditions, this step may also include the construction of additional gate facilities in the west terminal area and the airport's existing terminal core. The western terminal facility will enable the development of new roadways at the west side of the airport.

Evaluation of responses to RFQs is under way, and selection of the design team for this final phase will be made by the end of this year. Design of the new western terminal, which could include up to 60 gates, will also move forward in 2009.

“Any one of these project elements is huge in its own right,” Andolino says. “A tower is a standalone project, but we’re doing it concurrently.”

The Benefits

With the opening 9L-27R runway this fall, O’Hare is expected to be less delayed.

The FAA capped capacity at O’Hare to 88 arrivals and 88 departures per hour in 2004 when O’Hare’s operations peaked at 992,000 takeoffs and landings. In 2007, O’Hare’s operations were 927,000. In comparison, Midway Airport, the nation’s fastest growing airport, had 300,000 such operations.

“[The FAA caps] limited our growth and the natural marketplace became constrained,” Andolino says. “We couldn’t add capacity, so the FAA pulled us back.”

Those caps are being lifted this fall, she says.

And even though natural market factors such as high fuel costs and a slow economy may be grounding many planes in the near future, the OMP is creating an airport for the long term, Andolino adds.

“The airline industry may begin using larger aircraft, which would reduce operations but increase the number of people,” she says. “But over the last few years, carriers went to smaller aircraft and running more frequency. It’s hard to predict.”

O’Hare will be able to handle whatever comes, she says. It will have the infrastructure for A380s, which are about the length of a football field and contain 555 seats, or additional regional jets carrying 35 to 100 passengers.

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