The San Francisco International Airport (SFO) announced plans to improve Taxiway S, or “Sierra”, over a nine-day period in October. Once completed, Taxiway S will provide full-length departures from Runway 10R, reduce departure delays during parallel runway operation, and allow SFO to meet new federal taxiway design criteria.
All four runways at SFO will remain open throughout the project. However, Runway 28L, which is nearest the construction area, will be shortened to a length of 9000 feet for the nine-day construction period, scheduled from October 11-19, 2017. For safety purposes, during this period, Runway 28L will only be used for landing, to ensure aircraft do not take off over the construction area.
SFO does not anticipate the construction activity to delay arriving flights under normal runway configurations. Departing international and long-haul flights may experience slightly longer taxi times during the nine-day period, as Runway 28L will not be used for departing aircraft.
SFO developed the taxiway improvement plan in collaboration with airlines and the FAA. The Airport conducted a similar construction process, involving temporarily shortened runways, in 2012.
