BERKELEY – The first new runway built in New Jersey in more than 30 years is open to air traffic.
Crosswind runway 14-32 at Ocean County Airport in Robert J. Miller Airpark
has actually been operational for several months, but county and
Federal Aviation Administration officials celebrated the political and
engineering triumph at a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday
afternoon.
At 3,400 feet in length
and 75 feet in width, the auxiliary runway is shorter than the main
6,000-foot runway, and is to be used when the wind is blowing
perpendicular to the original. Before the crosswind runway was built,
pilots had to contend with gusts that has caused smaller airplanes to
crash while on approach.
This was especially difficult in the
winter months when the prevailing northwest winds threatened the small,
fixed-wing general aviation aircraft, explained Lori K. Pagnanelli,
manager for the FAA at the Harrisburg Airports District Office in
Pennsylvania, which has federal oversight authority of Ocean County
Airport.
In remarks at the ceremony Thursday, in which Ocean
County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato and Sheriff Michael G. Mastronardy
were among the invited guests, Pagnanelli declared that the new runway
met all FAA standards for small, general aviation aircraft. In recent
years, the airport has also seen its share of corporate jets coming and
going.
For years, environmental activists have long opposed the
new runway on grounds that any further major development in the
Pinelands Preservation Area of this scope was unacceptable.
Freeholder
Director Joseph H. Vicari pointed out that a crosswind runway had been
originally planned and the land cleared, when the airport originally
opened in 1968 but that the second runway was nixed after construction
of the 420-acre airpark ran over budget.
The additional runway,
parallel taxiway and upgraded safety features at the airport required by
the FAA have come at a cost of $8.2 million, about 90 percent of which
was funded by the federal government. The state Department of
Transportation and the county government covered the rest of the cost.
“In
30 years, the state of New Jersey has lost 14 airports,” Vicari said.
“What’s happened is that the airports — they’re dying all over the
place.”
Vicari said modernizing this airport over the years has
been important to the county government in an effort to maintain safety
and the county’s homeland security, and to attract economic development.
“One
thing, is because of economic development. It’s very important. When a
corporation wants to locate some place, they need an airport for
executives to go in and out — whether it be a (fixed wing) aircraft or
whether it be a helicopter, whatever the case may be.”
The
freeholder said the airport was used as a staging area during superstorm
Sandy and would be an essential base of operations in the event of
another disaster at the Jersey Shore, such as a major forest fire in the
Pine Barrens.
“We use it every day, especially in the summer time when our population goes from 580,000 to 600,000,” Vicari said.
Mike
Maino, a spokesman for Ocean Air Support Squadron, which provides air
search and surveillance services to the Ocean County Sheriff's
Department and its Office of Emergency Management, said in public
remarks Thursday that the absence of a crosswind runway at the airport
had been a “cocktail for disaster.”
“Flying a small aircraft in
the winter time with gusty winds or in the summer when you have a
high-density altitude is very difficult for a general aviation pilot,”
Maino said. “(Today with the new runway) in the middle of Barnegat Bay,
on our flights coming in, you can see ‘3-2’ looking at you, it’s just a
beautiful thing.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Runway 06-24 and Helipad
This
is the main runway at Ocean County Airport, which was built in 1968.
This runway is 5,950 feet in length and 100 in width. This runway is
certified to accommodate aircraft weighing up to 100,000 pounds per
wheel load bearing and thus can serve all general aviation aircraft and
corporate jets. In the event of an emergency, the airport can also
handle commercial airliners and military transports.
Runway 14-32
The
new crosswind runway is 3,600 feet in length and 75 feet in width. This
runway is specifically designed to accommodate smaller, lighter
aircraft that are more susceptible to the effects of wind gusts blowing
perpendicular to the main runway, which can cause these airplanes to
crash.
Source: Ocean County Airport (MJX)
- Source: http://www.app.com
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