Airspace issue seen as deterrent to Imperial airport site
By: ERIN SCHULTZ - Staff Writer | ∞
SAN DIEGO ---- Airspace problems that could force major flight detours may cause the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority to abandon a proposal to build a regional airport in the Imperial County desert, one of the more remote of several possible sites for a replacement for Lindbergh Field.
Restrictions over a military base in Imperial County and over nearby Mexico could push flights hundreds of miles off course before landing at the proposed airport, said Angela Shafer-Payne, who is overseeing the search for a new regional airport.
"There are a number of sections of restricted military airspace there, and the Mexican border is so close," Shafer-Payne said, noting that airspace restrictions start 50 to 60 miles from the airport and that pilots sometimes need twice that distance to approach airports for landing. "We've begun to see that there are some challenges."
The airport authority is charged with finding a site to replace or expand downtown's Lindbergh Field, which is projected to become overcrowded by the year 2012. The agency plans to bring an airport proposal to San Diego County voters by November 2006.
The airspace trouble is one of several impediments to the proposal to put an airport in Imperial County, about 100 miles east of San Diego. Opponents say the site is too remote to be appealing to travelers or airlines.
Proponents of putting an airport there, including Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, whose congressional district includes Imperial County, have pushed for the construction of a high-speed train to transport San Diego County passengers to and from the airport. They say airspace restrictions are commonly worked out by aviation officials and shouldn't keep the region from building an air hub there.
Nine places have been identified as potential airport sites, including Imperial County, several area military bases and the East San Diego County desert town of Campo. The authority says it won't study the military possibilities until after the government finishes a new round of base closures later this year.
Filner said that Imperial County, a desert community of about 140,000 people that is always looking for more visitors and jobs, is the only potential site where residents want an airport and where there is enough space to build a sufficient hub.
He called the airspace restrictions a "red herring" being used by people who don't want a regional airport outside of San Diego County.
"There are people who are viscerally opposed to an airport in Imperial County, and they'll do whatever they can to stop it," Filner said, saying that any airspace restrictions caused by El Centro Naval Air Station and Mexico could be figured out by the Federal Aviation Administration.
"Lindbergh Field has seven or eight military bases around it, and it still operates," Filner said this week. "These kinds of coordinating problems are routine and handled everywhere around the country and the world. They are never a fatal flaw because the FAA figures it out."
Aviation administration spokesman Donn Walker said Tuesday that the FAA often does work out airspace issues, but that doing so is not as simple as Filner made it sound.
"It's done everywhere by the FAA," Walker said from his Los Angeles office Tuesday. "But San Diego's airspace is extremely complicated."
Walker would not comment specifically on the airspace issues surrounding Imperial County or how the FAA might address those obstacles.
The airport authority is still studying the Imperial County site and will bring information about airspace restrictions to its board Monday, Shafer-Payne said.
"Right now, we do not have a position about whether the Imperial site is still a possibility," Shafer-Payne said.
Up to now, the airport authority has studied geographical obstructions to possible airport sites, such as mountains and forests, but has not considered airspace restrictions for each site.
"The board could direct us to do more studies, or to create a criteria to look at airspace," she said. "It's certainly a challenge, and we'll be doing more analysis."
Contact staff writer Erin Schultz at (760) 739-6644 or eschultz@nctimes.com.
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Rodney wrote on Feb 11, 2006 10:17 PM:Consequently, it would be absurd to believe in a time of fiscal constraint by all levels of government that we could spend unknown billions to build an international airport to be located as far away as Imperial County. If built a new airport would have severe environmental impacts on a largely agricultural region, cause shortages of scarce supplies of water, electricity and would become a major source of pollution for the region. It would be better for the county and city governments to begin planning for the modernization and upgrade of Lindbergh Field. Lindbergh Field needs to be expanded by adding additional passenger terminals, new cargo handling capacity, and a multi-modal transportation center. A multi-modal transportation center could link the San Diego Trolley, regional buses, and the proposed maglev high-speed maglev trains. Maglev trains could connect San Diego and Los Angeles into a regional transportation solution for Southern California. The maglev high-speed train would be five times faster, 50 percent less expensive to operate and would be far quieter and use less energy then other trains being operated today. Mr. Sandor Shapery has put forth his California Regional Maglev Project – San Diego/L.A at www.sdlamaglev.org. In the interim, San Diego needs to continue to expand its investment in the San Diego Light Rail system and move ahead with the 11-mile extension of the Mid-Coast Trolley system that would extend from the Old Town Transit Center north to UCSD and University Town Center in La Jolla, CA. We urgently need to begin the process of developing joint mayoral/congressional/private-sector partnerships that would allow San Diego to transform its transportation infrastructure for needs of the 21st century. Smart transportation planning for the region will consist of better utilization our current and future transportation systems that would integrate the maglev high-speed trains with our regional airports. This would allow airlines to reduce their short-haul fights and allow them to concentrate on more profitable long-haul flights. Airlines would remain solvent, flights would be more convenient for commuters and travelers, provide for shorter check-in times and better on-time performance. By providing seamless connections between trolleys, regional buses and the proposed maglev high-speed trains will enhance people’s options and provide more choices when they travel. This could have a impact on reducing traffic delays on our highways caused by congestion and gridlock, and would allow us to better weather unexpected leaps in gas and oil prices that may be on the horizon. The maglev high-speed train could help us to protect our open spaces, promote a cleaner more livable environment, and save our economy billions of dollars in lost productivity.
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