The airport of Mayor Richard Daley’s dreams would not just change where planes land and take off at O’Hare International Airport, it would modernize an increasingly outdated airfield and reshape life–for better and for worse–across dozens of suburbs and parts of Chicago.
For millions of travelers, the ambitious plan Daley unveiled Friday comes with promises of easier access to O’Hare, much fewer flight delays, and even more airline competition that could lead to lower ticket prices.
But the project that would add a runway, lengthen or reconfigure five others and construct a new terminal, also would subject some suburbanites and city dwellers to a new experience: airport noise. In addition, hundreds of homeowners and businesses may lose their properties to make way for the project.
And the sheer size of the plan, which would nearly double the capacity of O’Hare, could kill the construction of a new airport in the southern suburbs.
But will the reinvention of O’Hare ever leave the gate?
On Saturday, Daley said he thinks his plan is not only realistic, but essential for the economic well-being of the area. “We’re talking about the future of this region,” he said.
Daley defended the cost of the O’Hare overhaul, which he projected at $6 billion, and said the displacement of homeowners would be a small inconvenience in comparison with other large airport expansions.
Some experts said they thought the mayor might be overreaching.
“Give the man credit for dreaming, [but] we do not need bigger airports. We need more smaller airports,” said Terry Trippler, a Minneapolis-based airline critic for the online travel agency OneTravel.com. Trippler said he has not talked to anyone “who wanted to get to Chicago and couldn’t get there.”
Despite its risks, the plan is viewed by others as a justifiable public investment.
“This would allow O’Hare to reclaim its rightful place as the world’s premier travel gateway,” said Joseph Schwieterman, director of the Chaddick Institute at DePaul University that studies the economics of transportation.
Schwieterman said a new terminal proposed for the west side of the airport could be a magnet for a third major carrier to open a hub at O’Hare and compete with United and American.
Technically, the newly configured airfield would put O’Hare on a par with the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, which is building its eighth runway, but has 17,574 acres compared with O’Hare’s 7,000 acres. Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport, which is building its fifth runway, edged out O’Hare to lead the nation in the total number of flights over the last two years.
Both Dallas-Ft. Worth and Hartsfield operate with a system of parallel runways.
Daley’s plan would reconfigure O’Hare’s crisscrossing runways so most of them would also run parallel, allowing more planes to get in and out while allowing more runways to remain open in bad weather.
Good news in foul weather
Flights now are often delayed during bad weather because only two arrival runways, rather than three, remain open. The new layout would allow planes to land on four runways.
Craig Burzych, a longtime controller at O’Hare who was briefed on the city’s proposal, said it “probably would give us the most capacity of any airport on the planet.”
“It would be like Christmas Day at O’Hare every day, though all we really need is one new runway on the north side of the airport and one on the south side,” Burzych said.
The Chicago Department of Aviation estimated O’Hare would be able to handle 1.6 million takeoffs and landings a year, up from its current capacity of about 930,000 flights, under the proposed changes. Before the new runways can be built, however, O’Hare is expected to face 1.1 million flights by 2011, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which projects that the passenger demand for air travel at O’Hare will grow 46 percent over the next 10 years.
Daley said the first new runway wouldn’t be ready for 5 to 7 years, though FAA officials say even that is optimistic.
Though the controllers union said the runway changes would make it easier to manage aircraft in flight and on the ground, it also expressed concern that some of the new runways are too close to each other to allow for simultaneous landings.
“We were bothered that somebody drew up an airport plan and we were not allowed to be a part of the process,” Burzych said.
“But so long as the city will work with us to fix the problems, we will support the concept.”
In the less-congenial Chicago-area politics, the O’Hare blueprint will be a tougher sell.
Gov. George Ryan, who has veto power over new runways at O’Hare, has been under pressure from the Republican-dominated suburbs around the airport to block any expansion.
Indeed, lawmakers have for the most part been split along party lines on how to resolve the gridlock at O’Hare.
Some suburban lawmakers saw the city’s plan as a mere power play to keep control over one of the region’s most important economic engines.
State legislators representing the northwest suburbs doubted that Daley could win over suburbanites, even by promising to support a western-access road into O’Hare and other transportation projects that suburban leaders have long sought as part of the O’Hare makeover.
Blue Line, western access
Daley called for extending the Blue Line from O’Hare to Schaumburg along the Northwest Tollway to lure airport-bound travelers out of their cars. But the Regional Transportation Authority called an extension the costliest option.
Daley also proposed running express trains on the Blue Line between downtown and O’Hare to cut down the 45-minute trip. But the Chicago Department of Transportation hasn’t figured out how express trains would get around slower-moving, all-stop trains that ply the median of the Kennedy Expressway, other than saying it’s not an option to reduce the number of traffic lanes on the Kennedy.
Equally challenging and costly is the city’s plan to build a western access road and a bypass route for non-airport traffic between the northwest suburbs and the west and south suburbs, a strategy aimed at cutting congestion at the interchange of the Northwest Tollway, the Tri-State Tollway and Interstate Highway 190 into O’Hare.
“We would need at least 10 Illinois FIRST programs to pay for all this,” said one state transportation official, referring to Ryan’s ongoing initiative to upgrade infrastructure statewide.
State Sen. Terry Parke (R-Hoffman Estates) said Daley is taking advantage of the “perceived pressure” from federal lawmakers–who warn they will dictate an expansion of O’Hare if the mayor and Ryan fail to reach an accord by September–to push through a massive airport buildup.
Congressional threat in doubt
But some experts doubted that Congress will use its threat to strip Ryan of his right to block the airport redevelopment.
U.S. Rep. William Lipinski (D-Ill.), a close Daley ally, said he did not consider the scope of the O’Hare proposal to be a significant political liability.
“To me, if Ryan is going to accept the plan, I don’t think it makes too much difference politically whether he accepts a small plan or a big plan,” said Lipinski, the ranking Democrat on the House Aviation Subcommittee.
But U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) characterized the proposed runway plan as “an attempt to suffocate a new airport [in Peotone] and delay it 20 or 30 years possibly.”
Aside from fears of increased plane noise, perhaps the most controversial element of the city’s plan is the proposed elimination of 543 homes and rental units and 433 acres in Des Plaines and Bensenville to make room for the runways.
William Leffen and his wife, Eleanor, have lived in their house on Henke Road in Des Plaines for more than 41 years, and they have heard talk of O’Hare driving them away since they built their home in 1959.
“They told me, `What do you want to build here for? O’Hare Field is going to be built and they’ll buy you out,'” William Leffen said.
Despite Daley’s plan, Leffen said he doubted anything will happen soon. “Maybe in another 40 years,” he said, raising his voice to compete with a roaring outbound plane.
Comparing airport development plans
O’Hare International Airport was the second-busiest airport in the U.S. in 2000, but it ranked 27th in on-time arrival performance among the nation’s top 29 passenger airports. To improve efciency at O’Hare, Chicago officials have proposed a major runway reconguration that would result in six parallel runways, allowing more airplanes to land and take off. Several major airports that rank high in on-time arrivals use parallel runways. Among the nation’s ve busiest airports, four have plans to add or recently have built a new parallel runway.
Operations consist of total takeoffs and landings in 2000. Totals are preliminary.
Atlanta Hartseld International
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OPERATIONS
913,449 in 2000
Rank: 1st
Change 1997-2000: +15.1%
ON-TIME ARRIVALS
Flights on-time: 74.9%
Rank: 11th of 29
INFRASTRUCTURE*
Runways
Terminal
Runways
EXPANSION PLANS
Atlanta is planning to build a fth parallel runway and two new terminals as part of a $5.4 billion capital improvement program.
Chicago O’Hare International
OPERATIONS
908,977 in 2000
Rank: 2nd
Change 1997-2000: +2.8%
ON-TIME ARRIVALS
Flights on-time: 63.2%
Rank: 27th of 29
INFRASTRUCTURE*
Terminal
Runways
EXPANSION PLANS
The city announced a proposal that includes one new runway and the relocation of three existing runways. Two other runways would be extended.
Dallas-Fort Worth International
OPERATIONS
865,777 in 2000
Rank: 3rd
Change 1997-2000: -7.4%
ON-TIME ARRIVALS
Flights on-time: 78.0%
Rank: 6th of 29
INFRASTRUCTURE*
Terminal
Runways
EXPANSION PLANS
Dallas’ $2.6 billion capital improvement project includes several runway extensions and adding a new parallel runway to its existing ve North-South.
Los Angeles International
OPERATIONS
783,684 in 2000
Rank: 4th
Change 1997-2000: +.09%
ON-TIME ARRIVALS
Flights on-time: 66.8%
Rank: 25th of 29
INFRASTRUCTURE*
Runways
Terminal
Runways
EXPANSION PLANS
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The airport is dealing with increasing passenger demand and limited expansion possibilities due to its surroundings. A master plan is in development.
Phoenix Sky Harbor International
OPERATIONS
638,725 in 2000
Rank 5th
Change 1997-2000: +19.5%
ON-TIME ARRIVALS
Flights on-time: 71.2%
Rank: 18th of 29
INFRASTRUCTURE*
Runway
Runways
Terminal
EXPANSION PLANS
A third parallel runway was recently completed at the airport, which serves as a hub for America West Airlines.
*Existing runways
Sources: FAA and the 2000 Aviation Capacity Enhancement Plan; Bureau of Transportation Statistics; World Airport Week
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