LAX RUNWAY SAFETY AREA CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT AWARDED
Work Will Cause Rolling Runway Closures
(Los Angeles, CA – January 15, 2015) Los Angeles Board of Commissioners today approved a $25,245,000 contract to Griffith/Coffman Joint Venture for the Runway 6L-24R Safety Area Rehabilitation Project at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), signaling the start of a three-year runway construction project at LAX.
The Federal Government is requiring U.S. airports to improve the Runway Safety Area (RSA), a safety zone at the ends of each runway. The mandated improvements will provide an extra margin of safety for landing and departing aircraft. RSAs provide a buffer zone should an aircraft overshoot, overrun or veer off a runway while landing or taking off. RSAs are typically 1,000 feet by 500 feet at each runway end and 250 feet from the runway centerline. RSAs are not runway extensions.
At LAX, RSA improvements are needed for Runways 6R-24L and 6L-24R on the north airfield, and for Runway 7L-25R on the south airfield. Minor improvements are needed to bring Runway 7R-25L into compliance.
Runway Safety Area work will result in the phased closure of each runway during the three-year construction period. Passengers may begin experiencing impacts as soon as this summer, such as delays or a slight increase in wait times aboard aircraft. Closure of LAX runways for all work, RSA and/or maintenance, is scheduled March 2015 through June 2018.
LAWA has completed RSA work at LA/Ontario International and Van Nuys airports, Southern California facilities owned and operated by the airport authority.
The Runway 6L-24R Safety Area improvements and taxiway portions of the projectare eligible for a 75% reimbursement, up to a maximum amount of $14,874,645, from the FAA under an Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grant. AIP funding is not available for the pavement rehabilitation. All non-federally funded project costs will be recovered from airfield users through LAX’s rates and charges. No monies from Los Angeles City’s general fund are being used for this project.
About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
LAX is the sixth busiest airport in the world and third in the United States, serving nearly 66.7 million passengers in 2013. LAX offers 692 daily nonstop flights to 85 cities in the U.S. and 928 weekly nonstop flights to 67 cities in 34 countries on 62 commercial air carriers. LAX ranks 14th in the world and fifth in the U.S. in air cargo tonnage processed, with over 1.9 million tons of air cargo valued at over $91.6 billion. An economic study in 2011 reported that operations at LAX generated 294,400 jobs in Los Angeles County with labor income of $13.6 billion and economic output of more than $39.7 billion. This activity added $2.5 billion to local and state revenues. LAX is part of a system of three Southern California airports – along with LA/Ontario International and Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund.
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