March 13--SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco International Airport will shut down two of its four runways this summer to complete a federally mandated safety project, increasing the possibility of flight delays and intensifying airplane traffic over northwestern San Mateo County.
The airport plans to construct safety zones at both ends of runways 1L and 1R, a pair of northeast-facing strips that typically handle most of SFO's departures. So all flights will use the airport's two other runways from mid-May to September.
The work will cut the number of flights that can arrive in clear weather at peak hours by about 15 percent and change departing flight paths, sending all Southern California-bound flights over San Bruno and Daly City.
The airport will take various steps, however, to reduce delays of arriving and departing flights, said spokesman Doug Yakel. And the impact on travelers will not be dramatic, he said, noting the airport typically shuts down two of its runways 100 days of the year during strong winds.
"There is the possibility of delays during this period," said Yakel, "but we're working very hard to minimize whatever effect that this construction would have on passengers."
The airport already completed the safety project on 28L and 28R, the southeast-to-northwest-oriented runways it uses for arrivals. SFO lengthened and redesigned those runways last year to provide more room for aircraft that undershoot or overrun them, though even those measures could not prevent the pilots of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 from crash-landing July 6, killing three people and injuring many others.
But SFO's two departure strips are shorter than the arrival paths and cannot be sufficiently lengthened to meet Federal Aviation Administration requirements. So the airport will install "engineered materials arresting systems" at both ends of the runways. Instead of pavement the ground will consist of a material designed to collapse under the weight of an airplane, slowing its momentum.
The project will have a major impact on the flight patterns of departing aircraft. Rather than have most planes take off to the northeast, the airport will direct all departing aircraft to the northwest. That will mean more noise for some northern San Mateo County communities and less for others.
The impact may be most acute in Daly City, which normally sits beneath only those planes headed for Asia or Hawaii. This summer, at peak times in the morning and evening, it will see as many as 10-12 more planes per hour bound for Southern California. The Los Angeles metropolitan area is SFO's top domestic destination with about 500 weekly flights.
Daly City Vice Mayor Carol Klatt lives in the Serramonte neighborhood, the part of the city most affected by aircraft noise. Overhead planes often wake her up at night and drown out conversation during the day. When she's outside talking to a neighbor, for instance, they have to pause for a few seconds to let the planes go by.
The Serramonte area will be "heavily impacted," she said, but she praised SFO for its public outreach regarding the plan. The airport has given presentations to the Brisbane, Daly City, Pacifica and South San Francisco city councils, according to Yakel.
"I don't like it, but what choices do I have?" Klatt said. "They're doing everything they can to educate the community."
Work on runways 1L and 1R is scheduled to begin May 17 and wrap up by mid-September. The total cost of the runway safety project is $214 million, said Yakel, with all the money coming from the federal government.
Contact Aaron Kinney at 650-348-4357 or [email protected]. Follow him at Twitter.com/kinneytimes.
Copyright 2014 - San Mateo County Times, Calif.
