Greater Philadelphia Bicycle News

Airport Runway Expansion Meetings

Philadelphia International Airport is proposing new runways that could impact plans for the Tinicum Fort-Mifflin Trail: part of the East Coast Greenway.

>From Today's Inquirer

"...Airport officials are looking at two alternatives, dubbed the parallel
and diagonal plans. They are both aimed at expanding the airport's ability
to let more planes take off and land at the same time.

The parallel proposal calls for extending the length of the two existing
runways and building a new runway parallel to them on the airport's
southern edge that would require part of the Delaware River to be filled
in. The diagonal proposal calls for building two new runways, on the
northern and southern edges of the airport, and later on two more runways
adjacent to those two."


Informational meetings about the environmental effect of runway proposals
are scheduled for:

Tomorrow - Paulsboro High School Auditorium, 670 N. Delaware St.

Wednesday- Claymont (Del.) Community Center, 3301 Green St.

Thursday - Ridley Community Center Auditorium, 801 Morton Ave., Folsom.

Each meeting is to start with an open house from 5 to 7 p.m., when
questions will be answered. A formal presentation of the plans will be from
7 to 9. Questions also will be answered after the presentations.

The Airport Authority is a part of the Tinicum-Fort Mifflin Trail steering committee and they have expressed support for the trail project. However we need to exercise due diligence to make sure that the trail is fully integrated into any Airport expansion plans.