Lambert Airport opens new runway

ST. LOUIS -- Lambert Airport opened its new runway Thursday, even as critics of the $1.1 billion project called it a waste of money that destroyed a community.

The airport's first new runway in half a century was designed to reduce weather delays and allow the airport to manage increasing passenger demand, city and airport leaders said at a dedication ceremony for the project that was more than 15 years in the making.

"Critical to continuing the region's economic momentum is an airport that is efficient, so the airlines can serve our growing demand for air service," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said.

Hundreds of people invited to the ceremony watched as the mayor, federal aviation officials and U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan arrived on a small passenger jet to mark the first landing on the runway.

Many of those who dedicated runway 11-29 said it would give the city an advantage and attract airlines and business, and hopefully return St. Louis to the air-travel hub it once was.

But opponents of the expansion say that the airport's traffic is more than a third less than it was prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. One entire concourse is barely operating. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a 2004 forecast that Lambert's traffic would not reach pre-2001 levels until after 2020.

The expansion meant the loss of more than 2,000 homes, businesses, churches and schools near the airport, mostly in the St. Louis suburb of Bridgeton. Residents who opposed the expansion, including some who lost their homes, gathered Thursday not far from the celebration for the new runway.

"It amounted to an excessive waste of resources and the destruction of a community," said Sara Barwinski, who led one of three groups opposed to the project. Her family had to leave their Bridgeton home in 2003.

Opponents of the runway celebrated the end of their struggle with "White Elephant" cake, their joking nickname for the runway's usefulness.

"After 9-11, they said the project was too far gone to stop, when truthfully, they would rather spend a billion dollars than fix the mistake they made," Barwinski said.

Talk of a new runway began in 1989. Local unions for air traffic controllers and pilots were against plans to build the new runway and asked for alternatives in the late 1990s.

Trans World Airlines was still in business then, and Lambert was its primary hub. American Airlines purchased TWA out of bankruptcy in 2001.

The terrorist attacks badly damaged the airline industry. American eventually was forced to cut half its St. Louis flights. But by then, the runway project was well under way.

Leonard Griggs, who retired as Lambert's director in 2005, said the "airlines of today and tomorrow would demand this runway."

Airlines will begin paying their 23 percent share of the runway's costs in July. It's still unclear how much of that cost airlines will pass on to passengers.

Along with the new runway, the project includes new roads around the airport and Missouri's first traffic tunnel.

The runway eliminates a problem that caused many delays, said airport director Kevin Dolliole.

"Previously, our two major parallel runways were too close together to allow simultaneous aircraft arrivals in inclement weather," Dolliole said.

The new runway allows for simultaneous arrivals in more than 99 percent of weather conditions, he said.

But delays of 30 minutes or more are already down at Lambert, dropping by half in the last five years, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported.

Slay said the project also has benefited the region because most of the construction work went to St. Louis-area companies, including 22 percent of the work that went to firms owned by minorities and women.

But for Rowan Raftery, who lives near the airport, the cost to the surrounding community wasn't worth it. He said the value of his home and many others has sunk because of the extra noise the new runway will create.

The retired airline industry worker has campaigned to stop the project from the beginning.

"We've really seen a loss of community," Raftery said. "We did everything we could. I guess you could call this our last hoorah and one last chance to say, 'We told you so."'

After a decade of passenger traffic decline at Lambert, 2005 marked the first increase, 10 percent, to 7.5 million. About 13 million passengers traveled through Lambert in 1995.

The FAA predicted two years ago, after new runway construction had began, that by 2020 Lambert would slip from being the 17th ranked airport in the country to 30th, in terms of service.

Chris Blum, an FAA regional spokesman, said he expects the next forecast for Lambert to be more optimistic.

"You know the saying 'If you build it, they will come,"' Blum said. "Now that St. Louis has the capability, it becomes a much more attractive option for airlines to do business here."