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LAX Expansion May Raise Cancer
Risk
There is worry about the LAX expansion plan. The project involves
moving a runway -- now a new study shows re-locating that runway
could cause serious health problems.
ABC7 News,
http://www.abc7.com, August 1, 2005
LOS ANGELES — An environmental impact report scheduled to be
released today says that moving an LAX runway 55 feet for safety
reasons will create an increased cancer risk for nearby residents, a
newspaper reported.
The EIR says that closing the runway during the projected eight
months of construction will force officials to redistribute flights
among the three other LAX runways, requiring aircraft to taxi
greater distances and idle longer, increasing harmful emissions, the
Los Angeles Times reported.
The 1,370-age report, completed by an architectural and engineering
firm for the Los Angeles city agency that operates LAX, says that
changing landing and takeoff patterns will also subject residents in
Los Angeles, Inglewood and Westchester to more noise, classroom
disturbances and sleep disruptions, according to The Times
Shifting the 11,096-foot runway south is scheduled to start next
year and take 26 months to complete.
Repositioning the runway and building a new taxiway will require
workers to remove the old runway and install 600,000 square yards of
19-inch thick concrete, enough to build more than 40 miles of
two-lane road, The Times reported. It will also require contractors
to haul 225 million tons of dirt from the site.
Airport officials have said they must move the runway closer to El
Segundo and install a taxiway in between the two runways on the
airport's south side to reduce the possibility of collisions between
aircraft, The Times reported.
About 80 percent of runway safety violations at LAX occur on those
runways, because pilots who land on the southernmost one must
traverse a series of taxiways and cross another runway before they
reach the terminal, according to The Times. |