The Federal Aviation Administration told Southside Daily it’s still firm on its decision to discontinue a Norfolk International Airport environmental impact study in 2015. Without it, NIA can’t move forward to build a new parallel runway and could close for several months in forthcoming years, according to Norfolk Airport Authority Executive Director Robert Bowen.
“While a parallel runway is an appropriate long-term solution to the airfield layout and airspace issues at the airport, existing aircraft operations and aircraft types did not support moving forward with the project of this magnitude at that time,” FAA spokesperson Jim Peters said.
“The agency concurs with preserving the parallel runway on the airport layout plan and protecting the associated airspace for the runway until operations or other conditions consistent with FAA requirements warrant proceeding with the project,” Peters added.
NIA’s airport layout plan has featured a parallel runway since 1968, according to Bowen. Peters said preserving the parallel runway on the airport layout plan is necessary for it to be eligible to receive federal funding to pay for it.
Bowen said the FAA cited funding as an issue and that it could only pay up to 50 percent of its construction. That means NIA could pay up to $300 million for the runway – a cost Bowen said the airport could cover.
NIA is pushing to move forward with the EIS study because its only operating runway will need to be rehabilitated in a couple years, and reconstructed a decade after that, which could temporarily close the airport’s doors, according to Bowen.
Peters said the FAA recognizes the NIA’s need to rehabilitate the runway and that the agency has encouraged the airport to to evaluate the full range of alternatives to carry out the work.
“There are other commercial service airports throughout the country with just one runway, including airports with higher traffic levels than Norfolk International Airport,” Peters said.
“Such airports need to carefully consider construction phasing alternatives to limit the impact on facilities and operations. The FAA is available to help the Norfolk Airport Authority with evaluating alternatives they develop for completing the rehabilitation of [the runway].”
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