Sep. 30--An auxiliary runway at Norfolk International Airport that consultants have called a "hamstring" to airport growth is one step closer to extinction.
As Norfolk International Airport maps out a master plan looking 20 years into the future, its board has approved several changes suggested by consultants, including removal of that shorter general aviation runway that crosses the main 9,000-foot runway.
The airport authority board, which has long wanted a second runway to accommodate growth at what is the state's fourth-largest airport, also voted to support a second, 5,500-foot runway that would still be too short for commercial traffic but could accommodate corporate jets and other general aviation flights.
Choosing from alternatives proposed by its consultants, the authority also supported reconfiguring the airport's terminal, shifting all of its airline ticketing counters to one space directly across from arrivals. The current arrangement has them on opposite sides of a building, which necessitates a complicated path of roads leading to departure drop-offs and hourly parking lots. The plan would also consolidate the airport's two security checkpoints into one, which would lead to two concourses and, eventually, a third.
"You would still have the issue of the walk," said commissioner Deborah Painter, referring to complaints by travelers since the airport's lengthy moving walkway was removed from a pedestrian bridge that travelers need to cross to get to baggage claim. The airport's executive director, Robert Bowen, said there may be an opportunity to add moving walkways inside existing concourses if they're eventually widened.
The airport's architects will review the plans that the board has approved and report back on what's do-able and how much the projects may ultimately cost.
"It will be the architects that will actually tell us what will work and won't work," Bowen said.
The airport intends to submit its master plan, which it updates every 10 years, to the Federal Aviation Administration by January.
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