A New Runway Evolves

 

By Mark Lawrence

Producer of NYCAviation.com

Sitting on the south side of Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport use to be a small General Aviation runway.  Just over 5,000’ long and only 100’ wide, it would handle the plethora of small aircraft and biz jets that would frequent the airport, but it could not handle the mainstream commercial operations of the airport.  The problem was this was that due to increased traffic and more and more delays at the airport on the main 9,000’ runway, something needed to be done to alleviate these growing issues.  Well, simple you say, extend south runway and make it wider and voila, the problem is solved.  Well, there’s one small issue with that – extending the runway would take it right across an existing US highway and railway tracks that ran in front of the airport.

Well, this was the dilemma that faced Fort Lauderdale for many years.  However, with some great visionary planning and looking into the future by all involved, the Broward County Commissioners finally got to vote on the final proposal for the new runway extension in June 2007, the vote went 6-3 in favor of the expansion.  The idea was that the old runway would now be expanded to a full commercial width of 150’ and would be lengthened to 8,000’.  To achieve this extension without moving rails and roads, bridges would be built over the roads and the railways tracks and the runway would rise 65’ from its western end to its eastern end.

Construction on this runway, as well as the closure of the existing “cross” runway, 12/30 commenced with the ground breaking on January 23, 2012. From then on, it was full steam ahead as the construction of the bridges, temporary re-routing of the roads and more importantly, the paving of the new runway and taxiways occurred.  Included in this construction was the purchase of the Hilton Hotel adjacent to the end of the new runway by Broward County and the subsequent demolition of the hotel to create the free zone required by the FAA at the western end of the runway.  Over the 32 months of construction, the south side of the airport evolved from this almost sleepy hollow to a fully commercial operation.

The opening of the new runway was set for September 18, 2014.  For the occasion, JetBlue, the largest commercial operator at the airport, provided a charter flight to benefit the United Way of South Florida.  Seats were sold to customers wanting to experience the very first flight to land on the new runway.  Along with those passengers were member of the Broward County Executive as well as selected members of the press, and I was lucky to be one of them.  The aircraft for the special flight was a special scheme in the JetBlue fleet – N709JB – the first aircraft dedicated to the FlyFi system that JetBlue uses for wireless communications on board.

At just after 9:15am on the special morning, JetBlue Fort Lauderdale Chief Pilot, Randy Forester and First Officer Scott Morgan taxied the aircraft from the terminal to the current runway, 10L and took off to the east for the flight.  Reaching an altitude of only 7,000’—not even high as the new runway is long!— the Airbus cruised over Fort Lauderdale and The Everglades before finally settling on the heading to intercept the new runway.  The level of chatter in the cabin rose as we got closer and closer to the end of the runway.  At just after 9:45am, Capt. Forester greased the aircraft onto the new runway to the applause and cheers of all the passengers in the cabin.  After slowing down, the aircraft made a 180 degree turn on the runway and taxied back down to its temporary parking on the now closed again runway.  The passengers deplaned onto the runway and headed towards the ceremony location located alongside the runway for the speeches from Government and local officials, including US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, US Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Barbara Sharief.

A lighter moment during the addresses occurred when Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz was noting the importance of the new runway to decrease traffic congestion at the airport and in the background, a United flight was forced to make a go-around due to traffic on the runway. Following the addresses, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Sharief, the Broward County Commissioners and invited guests took station under the wing of the JetBlue Airbus for the formal ribbon cutting ceremony and the runway was declared officially open.

So, the next time you fly into or out of the 23^rd busiest airport in the country, who knows which runway you’ll get – the straight flat one on the north, or the rising star on the south.

 

Mark Lawrence is the Producer of NYCAviation.com.

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