On June 5, 2007, the County Commission of Broward County, Florida voted 6-3 to extend the south runway at Hollywood-Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL), and in so doing, over-rode the wishes and arguments of the concerned citizens that thought there were more viable alternatives.
If one were to review the tapes of that meeting, they would soon realize that very few of the Commissioners were listening to the speakers who were voicing a negative opinion on the proposed runway expansion. In general, they had their own private discussions among themselves all the while the meeting was in session.
One can only guess what these discussions involved, but it certainly wasn't the topic at hand. Maybe the latest shopping experience, the day's over-the-fence gossip, or the last trip to the hairdresser.
There was, evidently, no real reason to listen to the comments of the concerned citizens, because the vote was decided, although not expressed, before the meeting began. What other explanation can there be for bussing in people from an outlying community to counter the negative arguments of the people who will be directly affected by the expansion.
Stacy Ritter, one of the County Commissioners, along couple of the business people that stand to make enormous profits from the project, brought their "Yellow Shirt Brigade" from Tamarac, a city whose only involvement in the runway expansion program will be to help pay for it when the taxpayers of Broward County receive their bill for the final costs.
I personally fail to see the logic in opting for the least viable alternative in an expansion that has yet to be proven necessary, especially when one considers that it is the most costly, affects the most citizenry, has the most devastating environmental impact, and amounts to the most profligate pork barrel project in recent history, particularly in Broward County.
Some of the points that haven't received proper consideration:
This runway is to be elevated 9 feet at its' west end to provide extra vertical clearance for Interstate 95, which borders the Airport on the west side, and 46 feet at its' east end to provide vertical height to allow a bridge to be built over US Highway 1 and the FEC Railroad tracks that border the airport on the east side, a situation the safety of which is dubious.
The 6,000,000 cubic yards of fill required for the runway substrate approximately equals a 3.6 mile section of the Great Wall of China. Is this to be known as the Geat Wall of Broward?
6,000,000 cubic yards of fill approximately equals 3772 acre feet, which is an area of 151 acres if the area is dug to a depth of 25 feet. This translates to an area about .25 miles square. Less depth requires more surface area. There are no hills in south Florida to knock down for this fill, so digging or dredging are the only options.
To compact the fill sufficiently to support the runway, a minimum of 234,000,000 gallons of water will be consumed, at a time when South Florida is in the worst water crisis in recorded history. The citizens of Broward are on water restrictions and can only water our lawns once per week.
Since there is no land area of this consequence within reasonable trucking distance of the airport, and since this area represents slightly less than half of the area of the city of Tamarac, I wonder if "The Yellow Shirt Brigade", or perhaps a few of the County Commissioners would be willing to sacrifice their homes to provide the area for this new lake.
In a day when fuel economy is of paramount concern, the Commissioners must realize that 6,000,000 cubic yards of fill means 300,000 truckloads at 20 yards per truck, and if we assume a 20 mile round trip, (which to me is inconceivable in view of the fact that there is no land area large enough to provide this fill within a ten mile radius of the airport,) at 8 miles per gallon, an optimistic figure, means that a minimum of 750,000 gallons of fuel will be consumed, which at today's rates, $3.00 per gallon, means $2,225,000.00 in fuel costs alone, and who knows what the fuel cost will be in the future? This doesn't even consider the fuel to operate the ancillary construction equipment that will be involved in the project.
According to an esteemed source, a modern automobile with a catalytic converter emits about 20 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon of fuel used. Diesel burning dump trucks not only are rarely equipped with working catalytic converters, but they also emit sulphur dioxide as well as other noxious elements and VOCs, adding poisons to the ground ozone.
750,000 gallons of fuel at 20 pounds of emissions is 15,000,000 pounds or 7,500 tons minimum, of toxic greenhouse gas emissions. Why not just park an idling Greyhound bus in our living rooms?
A runway 150 feet wide and 8,000 feet long is seriously inadequate to accommodate an Airbus 380, the aircraft of the future. They require a runway 200 feet wide and 11,000 feet long with a minimum of 600 feet between a runway and a taxi-way, and a minimum of 324 feet between taxi-ways. What do we do next? Expand the runway again when the New Larger Aircraft dominate the air traffic, only the next time, we will have to push fill into the ocean to extend the runway and taxi-ways. Why not just build causeways to the Caribbean Islands and to Europe, and eliminate air traffic altogether?
The demand for concrete is presently at an all time high, driving the price per yard up at a steadily increasing rate. At today's costs, the nearly 60,000 cubic yards of concrete required for the top 14 inches of the runway alone will be in excess of $2, 850,000.00, and what will the final cost escalate to with an estimated annual rise in material cost of between 2% and 8%?
The supply of limestone that was thought to be inexhaustible in Dade County is running out rapidly, and soon we will have to import limestone for structural fill , cement and construction aggregate.
The need for any runway expansion has not been proven necessary, and one report from the FAA states that runway expansion will improve capacity 0%. How can anyone with a conscience vote for this expansion plan, when other options are far more viable.If it is because of the opportunities for personal gain,then shame on you.
I ask the Broward County Commissioners, "Where is your conscience, and how well do you sleep at night"? I say to the citizenry of Broward County. "Remember in November"!
Grant Campbell
2321 SW 44 St
Dania Beach, Fl 33312
954-812-2613
grantcampbell_1@yahoo.com
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)