In Los Angeles, as one LAX runway project ends, another begins

The southernmost runway reopens as more-risky construction starts on a taxiway between two airstrips.

By Jennifer Oldham, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
01:27 AM PDT, April 02, 2007

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Even as they reopen the southernmost runway at Los Angeles International Airport today, officials are looking ahead to a more dangerous project: building a parallel taxiway between two runways while jets traveling more than 100 mph take off and land just yards away on each side.

Dozens of excavators, oversized dump trucks and other machines will toil 20 hours a day to build a 1.8-mile-long concrete taxiway on the airport's south side, even as controllers work to wedge in hundreds of flights around them.

"This is, without a doubt, a greater safety concern," said Jake Adams, runway project manager for the city's airport agency. "We're taking the appropriate measures to make sure the contractor does what he's supposed to do."

Airport officials said they were satisfied with Tutor-Saliba Corp. and its subcontractors' safety record during reconstruction of the southernmost runway, 55 feet farther away from its twin. The project is coming in 7% under budget and only about a week late despite some unexpected obstacles.

"We put in $170 million worth of runway work in seven months and blew everyone's mind," said Ronald N. Tutor, president of Tutor-Saliba. "It was uneventful."

Even so, building inspectors cited the firm and its subcontractors several times since work began in July for not complying with stringent safety requirements, a Times review of inspection reports found.

The requirements included erecting orange plastic fencing around various job sites, installing beacons and large orange-and-white checkered flags on construction vehicles, not overloading trucks and providing flagmen to ensure that trucks yield to aircraft.

The citations were meant in large part to reinforce safety rules so the contractor and workers understood the importance of adhering to them when construction on the center taxiway begins this month, Adams said. Officials expect to complete the project in June 2008.

The city's airport agency spent years trying to convince residents and the City Council that it needed to rework the south airfield at LAX to prevent close calls between aircraft on the ground.

About 80% of such incidents occurred on the south side when pilots landed on the outer runway, turned onto a series of taxiways and stopped too close to the inner runway, where aircraft take off. LAX historically has had among the nation's highest rates of so-called runway incursions.

By moving the southernmost runway and installing a center taxiway, officials hope to cut down on incursions. When the project is finished, pilots will be directed by controllers after they land to turn onto the taxiway, where they will await clearance to cross the inner runway.

A settlement agreement forged between airport-area communities and the agency in late 2005 allowed some projects in Mayor James K. Hahn's $11-billion LAX modernization plan to proceed — including the $330-million south airfield reconstruction.

Moving the southernmost runway was a massive undertaking that required months of planning to reorchestrate the airport's 1,800 flights a day.

Airlines and air traffic controllers were concerned that shutting down one of the airport's four runways for the project would cause delays, not just at LAX, but also at other regional airports.

But things went relatively smoothly. Less than 1% of all flights from July through March experienced reportable delays — or those 15 minutes or longer — as a result of the runway closure, according to air traffic control data.

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