Los Angeles airline, airport and city officials celebrated the opening of a new center taxiway between the southern two runways at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The taxiway project, which began April 2007, was completed on budget and four days early. Los Angeles was the site of the nation’s worst runway accident between a US Airways 737 and a SkyWest Metroliner in 1991.
Opening of the $83-million center taxiway marks the completion of the airport's overall $333-million South Airfield Improvement Program (SAIP) to improve airfield safety by reducing the number and severity of runway incursions that occur at LAX.
For the four-year period from 2000 through 2003, LAX experienced the highest number of runway incursions of any U.S. commercial airport. In 2006, using the traditional definition of a runway incursion, LAX experienced eight runway incursions, of which two were classified by the FAA as having had the serious potential to result in an accident. Last year, LAX experienced eight runway incursions, of which the FAA classified two as serious.
"The center taxiway is one of the most critical safety improvements to be implemented at LAX," said Wes Timmons, the FAA's runway safety director. "Having the center taxiway as a buffer to prevent aircraft from exiting the outer runway and accidentally infringing on the inner runway will prevent many runway incursions. This is an event in which the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and the FAA can be justifiably proud."
The opening follows a 14-month period during which the 10,000-foot long and 75-foot wide taxiway was constructed parallel and between the airport's two south runways, and shorter taxiways were constructed to link the runways to the center taxiway. Construction also included the installation of navigational and visual aids, utilities, lighting, signage, grading and drainage.
The completion of the center taxiway project followed the $250-million demolition, relocation and reconstruction of Rwy 25L, which re-opened April 2007. SAIP funding sources were airline landing fees; $105 million from FAA Airport Improvement Program grants; and airport operating revenues and capital improvement funds.
LAX has spent tens of millions of dollars since the late 1990s, after the SkyWest accident, to enhance airfield safety with redundant signage and markings. While these new measures have resulted in a significant reduction in runway incursions, adding the new center taxiway has already demonstrated its effectiveness.
The center taxiway reduces the possibility of human error by requiring aircraft landing on outer Rwy 25 Left to exit the runway, travel down the center taxiway, and then hold until authorized by air traffic controllers to cross the inner Rwy 25 Right to reach the passenger terminal gates.
The "zig-zag" path causes an aircraft to slow sufficiently in order to stop in time and receive permission to cross the inner runway. Formerly, aircraft used high-speed taxiways to exit the outer arrival runway and runway incursions would occur if the aircraft did not stop in time to stay behind the hold-bar line. In a joint study involving LAWA, FAA and NASA Ames Research Center's FutureFlight Central, air traffic controllers found that the center taxiway offered an effective solution to the primary cause of the most severe types of runway incursions experienced at LAX.