
Logan International Airport has closed one of its primary runways for maintenance, but residents in the downtown neighborhoodds are yet to report much disruption from the increase in late-night and early morning flights.
Runway 15R-33L was closed on August 15 for maintenance that will take several months to complete.
The closure won’t affect
overall flight volume but will reroute many flights over densely
populated areas early in the morning and late at night.
15R-33L
is often used specifically for noise reduction, putting flights during
quiet hours on a northwest/southeast track that routes them over the bay
and less populated areas.
The
closure will increase air traffic over neighborhoods west of the
airport, which are already some of the areas reporting the worst
problems with both flight noise and air pollution from low-altitude
takeoffs.
“This is the
biggest, longest and most often used runway,” said Steve Fox, head of
the South End Forum and the neighborhood’s representative on the
Massport Community Advisory Committee (CAC) when the closure was
announced. “Every other runway is going to get a hell of a lot more
traffic, especially departures over South Boston, the South End and even
occasionally into the Back Bay.”
While
Logan has thought about noise pollution and listed a series of
mitigation measures in its press release, they were all focused on
reducing noise from the construction itself, which seems unlikely to be
louder than the landing airliners that typically use the runway.
There’s
also no discussion of air pollution, which is often exacerbated by
high-speed takeoffs that don’t gain much altitude before passing over
residential areas. The neighborhoods west of Logan already suffer from
poor air quality and could be worse in the coming months while
construction continues.
Fox
does say flight noise is something airport officials take into
consideration. It’s been brought up with the CAC before, although
residents don’t always agree with the airport’s conclusion.
“We
talked about that. We know that Massport is very much aware of it. They
predict that there won’t be any significant increase in noise, but to
be quite honest those predictions have been a source of widespread
disagreement between Massport and communities for as long as I can
remember,” he said.
Regardless,
it doesn’t seem like the runway closure has had too large of an impact.
Fox is yet to hear complaints from residents, though that could change
as people return from summer vacations.
“A
lot of people are away in August, so it’s probably the worst period to
get a sense of what people are experiencing in changes,” he said. “That
said, I haven’t heard anything that suggests people are feeling the
impact yet.”
The
Chinatown Residents Association did respond to a request for comment on
whether any members reported an impact from the closure.
The
plan to close 15R-33L dates back to late April when the airport’s
community advisory committee was informed of the need for repaving. The
last time maintenance was done on the runway was in 2012.
In
addition to mandatory repaving to keep the surface in good shape,
workers plan to use the opportunity to install a range of improvements
to the lighting and electrical components of the runway, installing
efficient LEDs along its length.
Jennifer
Mehigan, Logan’s director of media relations, said it’s too early at
this point to predict whether work will be complete on time or take
longer than expected.
The
planned 100-day schedule would reopen the runway around November 23,
right before use of the runway typically picks up again due to
winter/spring wind patterns.