Runway change at Naples airport not leading to noise complaints

By KATHERINE ALBERS

Posted September 3, 2011 at 3 p.m.

Fast facts

The authority is extending the runway’s safety zones by 510 feet on the south end and 800 feet on the north end. This would increase the declared distance of the runway to 5,800 feet for takeoff, but it would remain 5,000 feet for landing.

NAPLES — Ted Soliday admits that the Naples Airport Authority could use a little less rain in the forecast.

After all, when you have a major construction project going on, rain can cause delays.

But Soliday, the executive director of the airport, said the airport’s runway paving project is coming along just fine and will be completed before the Thanksgiving holiday.

“It’s on schedule. It will happen,” he said of meeting the completion date. “In the middle of this month, if they are behind, we will be going to double or triple shifts. But we want to make sure it is done on time and on budget.”

The authority, which receives no city or county tax dollars, is paying $3.2 million for the airport’s runway extension.

The authority is extending the runway’s safety zones by 510 feet on the south end and 800 feet on the north end. This would increase the declared distance of the runway to 5,800 feet for takeoff, but it would remain 5,000 feet for landing.

As a result of the paving project, the airport has closed Runway 5/23, asking planes to use the crosswind runway, which crosses the main runway in the middle.

Soliday told the Naples Airport Authority board last month, after board Chairman Cormac Giblin asked, that the airport has received one noise complaint, which was forwarded to him by Mayor Bill Barnett.

Soliday said the complaint came from the Lake Park neighborhood in Naples.

“It is not an area where we typically see noise complaints,” he said this past week. “And it has to be because of the crosswind runway use.”

Although he said he didn’t know how many total complaints the airport had received in the month since construction began on the runway, Soliday said complaints should be at a minimum because August typically is the slowest month at the airport.

“That’s why we are doing the project right now,” he said. “We need to get it done before the Wine Festival and season comes around.”

Still, Soliday told the authority board last month that the airport usually gets three or four noise complaints a month.

But while August may be the quietest month, Soliday said July was one of the busiest at the airport, with the numbers of planes landing up significantly from July 2010.

Soliday said he expects that to change in August, however, not only because of decreased traffic, but also because he said more planes are using Page Field in Fort Myers to land due to the construction at the Naples airport.

The Lee County Port Authority didn’t immediately have its airplane traffic numbers for August. Victoria B. Moreland, director of public affairs for the Lee County Port Authority, said those numbers would be released in late September.

Source:  http://www.naplesnews.com