After weighing about two dozen options, federal aviation officials said Wednesday they are considering just two locations for a second commercial runway proposed at Palm Beach International Airport.
Both would put the new runway, designed to accommodate large jets, 800 feet from the existing 10,000-foot commercial runway. The plans are being considered by the Federal Aviation Administration as part of a three-year environmental study looking at the airport's proposal to extend its shortest runway.
Under the airport's proposal, the southernmost general aviation runway would be lengthened from 3,210 feet to 8,000 feet. It is 800 feet south of the existing commercial runway.
That plan would require moving several private-plane service centers on the south side of the airport near Southern Boulevard to the former Golfview neighborhood on the north side. The crosswind runway also would be shortened.
The second option, proposed by the FAA, would build a new 8,000-foot runway roughly 800 feet north of the existing commercial runway. The general aviation runway would remain, but the crosswind runway would be eliminated.
Under the FAA plan, 11 gates in the terminal would be demolished and two new concourses would be built to replace them. The air cargo facility also would be moved.
FAA representatives and Allan Nagy - project manager for URS Corp., a consulting firm hired by the agency to help with the study - unveiled the options Wednesday evening to a group of leaders of neighborhoods near the airport.
The FAA plan is projected to cost about $629 million, which would come from federal, state and local governments. The cost of the airport's plan was not included in the presentation Wednesday.
As part of the environmental study, the FAA is required to consider the option of not building another runway. The "no-action" option is used as a baseline comparison, according to the FAA.
Airport officials have maintained that the runway extension is needed to prevent lengthy delays, expected to be 20 minutes on average by 2018. Federal authorities have said they cannot recall a situation where they denied an improvement project as a result of an environmental study.
