Centerlines - January 2008 - (Page 33)

SAFET Y AND SECURIT Y gated. The 20 airports have since improved signage and paint markings, as well as put training programs in place for airport personnel. Other short-term actions in the call to action plan included accelerating the deployment of improved airport signage and markings at the top 75 airports within 60 days, or well ahead of the June 2008 mandated deadline. Numerous airports, including Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, took this hastened action. The FAA has asked airports to paint red the pavement on the taxiway side of the traditional black and yellow-hashed hold line to identify the approach of a runway with the runway number clearly marked on the surface. “Before you can cross that hold line, you see this large blanket of red paint you must taxi across that signals you are going out onto a runway,” said Jeffrey W. Hamiel, executive director of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission and a participant in Blakey’s meeting. “That triggers pilots to question whether they have clearance, if they have visually cleared the approach, and if they are participating in a safe operation or activity. We have painted those intersections and we were ahead of most airports from the standpoint that we initiated it when FAA first expressed an interest in doing it.” Minneapolis has also completed its enhanced centerline requirement. “The FAA has asked that we highlight and improve centerline paintings and markings on all of our taxiways,” Hamiel said. “We have enhanced all of the centerlines based on FAA criteria to give differential color distinctions to ensure they will be easily seen by taxiing pilots at night or under poor weather conditions. One of the reasons we jump on this is because, like all northern tier airports, when winter comes and the surface becomes obscure covered with snow and ice, the visual cues are more difficult and not quite as apparent as what they may be in Miami in the middle of winter.” Mid-Term Actions Mid-term actions specific to airports include the accelerated installation of runway status lights. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and San Diego International Airport served as the pilot airports for this highly touted system that utilizes Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X (ASDE-X) technology. “There was not a planned rollout for this product system wide,” said Allen Parra, DFW’s vice president of operations. The technology indicates if a runway is in active use. “However, because of the success and acceptance in the community of how it has performed, there is a universal desire to have this new capability certified for deployment at airports throughout the United States and to do that as quickly as possible.” DFW’s James M. Crites, its executive vice president of operations, said the runway status light technology enables pilots, controllers, and vehicular drivers on the airfield to see their environment in a more relevant way. “In the administrator’s call to action, pilots, controllers and airlines were unanimous in their positive remarks of this system to enhance airfield safety,” Crites said of the lights currently implemented at DFW’s Runway18L-36R. In early December, DFW will begin construction of additional runway status light systems on two runways: RWY 17R-35L and RWY 17C-35C. Other airports are making plans to follow. “Technology has finally come to the point where a lot of the ideas that have been on the drawing board within the aviation community are now able to come to the marketplace,” Crites said. “Runway status lights are a great example of being able to take data from various systems and integrate them to provide real-time information about the environment that exists on the airfield. This is going to be a big boon to safety.” The Massachusetts Port Authority has already committed to fast track the implementation of runway status lights and ASDE-X to enable Boston Logan air traffic controllers to detect potential runway conflicts by providing detailed coverage of movement on runways and taxiways, said Director of Aviation Ed Freni. Long-Term Actions In the longer term, it is apparent that technological solutions including ASDE-X and runway status lights will be a key component of runway safety programs. The FAA is planning to accelerate the deployment of ASDEX by a full year from 2011 to 2010. The call to action meeting also received universal acceptance of the adoption of moving map displays in cockpits to further facilitate pilots’ situational awareness. Due to the dialogue exchanged during the administrator’s meeting, there has been great interest in rolling out moving map displays in a limited, rudimentary format as a first step to enable pilots to understand where they are on the airfield, with other capabilities added over time. Airport-Specific Actions Airports are also taking actions independent of the FAA mandates to alleviate runway incursions. As part of Minneapolis’s recent $3 billion expansion, tunnels were constructed under the airport’s runways to eliminate the need to cross runways on the surface. So rather than calling the tower to ask permission to cross the runway, airport personnel can now get anywhere on the airport they wish to go by going through tunnels and completely eliminating potential vehicle-aircraft conflict situations. In the same vein, Dallas is proceeding with its long-planned perimeter taxiway. “We are building our first quadrant that will be complete Dec. 18, 2008,” Crites said. “We think this is important because the best way to avoid runway incursions is not to have aircraft crossing runways in front of each other.” continued on page 42 www.aci-na.org | CENTERLINES 33 http://www.aci-na.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Centerlines - January 2008

Contents President’s Message Canadian Airports Associates’ Corner Policy Center Regulatory Front On the Hill and On the Stump One on One: Dave Barger Revenue: The Concessions Awards Environment: O’Hare Expansion Passenger Focus: Houston Friendly Safety and Security: After Comair, What Next? Air Service Recruiting: Charleston’s Acquisition of AirTran On Management: Performance Benchmarking at DFW Now Underway Grand Opening Conference Previews and Reviews New Members Index of Advertisers/Advertiser.com Box Scores

Centerlines - January 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.