New Logan Routes Touted As Good For South Shore

A plan to reroute some of the air traffic in and out of Boston Logan International Airport will benefit the South Shore, according to a member of the advisory board that will vote on the issue.

Declan Boland of Hingham said planes will fly higher and farther away from the coast, reducing jet engine noise and pollution.

"I see this as good for Hingham and good for the South Shore," he said.

The advisory council, which represents 30 Boston area communities, will vote on the traffic plan June 21.

The change in flight routes is the result of a long legal battle over the construction of a sixth runway at Logan.

In 2002 the Federal Aviation Administration authorized the $100 million air strip to relieve flight delays caused by northwest winds.

The ruling came with the condition that a noise and pollution study be commissioned and overseen by the citizens council.

Work on the 5,000-foot runway, known as 14-32, began last year and coincides with the mandated remediation project.

The next step is to consider 40 new travel routes that will take planes over the ocean at altitudes thousands of feet higher than they now fly.

Boland said ratification is not certain since each community has interests at stake.

"All towns are winning," Boland said. "The difference is the extent of the win."

The battle over the runway dates to the 1970s, when an injunction barred Logan from building the runway.

After the injunction was lifted, Hull filed a lawsuit to stop the project. A judge ruled against the town in 2002, but Hingham and Cohasset joined Hull in appealing the case to the state Supreme Judicial Court.

The high court rejected the case in 2004.

Litigation cost the three towns hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Selectman Philip Edmundson said the new plan looks positive for the town and the region as a whole.

"This was the alternative to litigation. It sounds like it's going very well," he said.

Boland said the advisory council's role is crucial at a time Logan's air traffic is increasing by about 5 percent a year.

The new runway will be used when prevailing northwest winds force the other runways to shut down.

South Shore residents would see the most noise when 14-32 is open, but by sending the planes farther out over the ocean towns should see some relief, he said.

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