Airport projects take off

John Howell
Posted 4/28/15

This is going to be a busy summer at Green Airport. It’s already begun – not the summer, but all the construction.

“We’ll spend more money this construction season than in any other …

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Airport projects take off

Posted

This is going to be a busy summer at Green Airport. It’s already begun – not the summer, but all the construction.

“We’ll spend more money this construction season than in any other season,” Kelly Fredericks, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, said Friday.

Overall, airport projects will ring up a quarter of a billion dollar tab in airport improvements, home acquisitions and home soundproofing. Fredericks estimates more than $62 million will be spent on projects this summer.

Fredericks, along with Dan Porter, RIAC vice president of planning and environmental, had just completed giving Mayor Scott Avedisian a real overview of an airport project from a vantage that few get. Rather than seated in front of a screen with a presentation filled with data, the mayor joined Jim Warcup, a pilot and state aeronautics inspector, in the state helicopter for a 500-feet-up view of the work being done.

And seeing they were up in the air, they took a look at a few other Warwick points of interest including Rocky Point, Apponaug and the circulator project and City Centre Warwick and how the former Elizabeth Mill site, where heavy equipment is clearing the remains of the brick building, fits into the vision of a mixed use development with its connections to the highway, rail and airport.

Avedisian said yesterday there was noticeable progress, especially at Winslow Park, since he last made an aerial tour last fall.

What an aerial view provides is a perspective of the airport in relation to the rest of the city. It’s big. And two of the five major projects crews are working on also take up huge chunks of land. The new Winslow Park softball and soccer fields that Fredericks scheduled for a July 1 completion occupy more than 20 acres. Softball diamonds were clearly visible, as were crews building the concession stand and the green terrace of soccer fields with sprinklers jetting.

Relocating the fields is costing about $7 million.

What hasn’t started is work on the Airport Road intersection for access to the fields. The road to the maintenance garage on the northeast end of the airfield is the access road to the park. Fredericks said a traffic signal on Airport Road may not be in place by the time the playing fields are turned over to the leagues, but it is on the drawing boards.

On the other end of the airport, where Winslow Park is today, is the other visible alteration. With more than a dozen houses gone, trees removed and the area leveled, the corridor for a longer runway and the relocation of Main Avenue stands out. Ground won’t be broken for the runway extension until next year with completion targeted for Dec. 7, 2017.

But first is the relocation of Main Avenue, a project that will start this spring. Fredericks said bids for the job, which were opened last week, are within the $6.5 million budget and being reviewed. The work involving the looping of Main Avenue around the extended runway will be done without interrupting traffic, Fredericks said.

“It’s almost like a giant chess game,” says Fredericks. “First you have to relocate Winslow before you do Main Avenue, and you need to do Main Avenue before the runway.”

A third project, but not seemingly as big from the air, is the extension of the safety area at the end of Runway 34. This is the shorter of the airport’s two runways and is used when winds are predominantly from the east or west. The opposite end of this runway, Runway 16, now meets Federal Aviation Administration safety requirements with the removal of Hangar 1 and the installation of EMAS (engineered material arresting system) at the end of the runway. EMAS is a system of compressible concrete blocks designed to stop an aircraft that has overshot the runway. EMAS will also be used at the 34 end of the runway, but in addition to this work the safety area is being extended into the Buckeye Brook wetlands. To offset the lost wetlands, RIAC will restore wetlands north of the brook at the culvert at Lakeshore Drive. RIAC will also install a new and wider culvert that should allow for the easier passage of spawning herring and mitigate flooding of Lakeshore Drive. Fredericks put the cost of the runway project at $30 million.

An even more costly project at $33.2 million is the glycol, or deicing fluid, recovery system in the shadow of the control tower. From the air what’s visible of the system is a pair of storage tanks and a rectangular treatment plant. Most of the system of drainage lines was finished last summer. Fredericks called the system one of only four like it in the country and that it will be completed by this Friday.

Totally hidden, at least from the air, is the second phase of soundproofing of dwelling units that are within the noise contour. Overall, more than 500 units will be soundproofed. Porter said under this phase 150 single-family homes and 40 condos in the Lockwood condo complex would be sound insulated.

Avedisian remarked on what is a marked improvement in communication and cooperation with RIAC attributing those improvements to Fredericks, former RIAC Chair Kathleen Kittner and current Chair John Savage. He also said former Gov. Lincoln Chafee also made a point of keeping the city informed and focusing attention on ways the city and state could benefit from airport developments such as courting and bringing jetBlue to Green Airport. He said they have become the good neighbor they once professed to be.

On the tour, the helicopter made a turn over the Lockwood condos. The extent of the noise contour is Apponaug Cove, but that could change.

Porter said the noise contours are updated every five to eight years. The last one was done in 2008. Fredericks is uncertain what a new noise study will show. He points out that advances in design have made for quieter aircraft.

That’s not the total of the work to be done. In a follow-up email, Fredericks said improvements would be made to Hangar 2, a triturator for aircraft lavatory waste upgrade, closed circuit TV system expansion, and some terminal entrance improvements.

But he has no qualms saying that while aircraft may be quieter there will be no lack of airport-related activity on the ground this summer.

Comments

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  • RichardLangseth

    The following appeared the same day as above article - in the ProJo. Sen. Reed seems to be backpedaling on the potential for the runway extension in his answer to a question from a Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce breakfast attendee:

    "In response to an audience question about T.F. Green Airport, Reed said leaders had to look beyond projects such as extending the Green's main runway, a project already underway and expected to finish in 2017, to find ways to make Rhode Island's main airport more competitive. As an example, with the longer runway, which allows planes to take off laden with more fuel to reach farther destinations, Green could become a gateway to America for European travelers if Amtrak added stops at the airport train station. "We have to not sit back and say, 'They'll come.' We have to go out and get them," Reed said."

    The original vision for the rail connection was a $20 million train station at Green with Amtrak access. That never happened and now Senator Reed seems to be setting up the argument that Amtrak's refusal to service the airport will cause problems for the runway extension. That really is a lot of BS considering that Boston's Logan, JFK and Newark all have passenger rail access. Why would a European traveler pick Green with a three hour trip to NYC over JFK with a direct rail connection? Duh.

    I have a concern with Kelly Frederick's estimate in the Beacon piece above that "more than $62 million will be spent on projects this summer." RIAC has not made arrangements to borrow any money for this project and will apparently be relying on federal grants to make it happen. But, where is the grant money? The plan last December was to float a bond to cover this need. But the RIAC board has yet to review that need and time is clearly running out.

    Is that why Senator Reed is now talking about Amtrak as an important factor to Green's upcoming "home run" when the runway extension gets built. Or will he be saying "We can't get Amtrak - so let's forget about the runway extension?"

    Wednesday, April 29, 2015 Report this

  • .

    The kids, parents and coaches will be entering the ballfields from Airport Rd, wonderful! Make sure to bring your ear plugs and face masks with you!

    Thursday, April 30, 2015 Report this

  • markyc

    T.F. Green Airport was always relying on Amtrak Service as being part of the overall airport expansion plan. If "We have to go out & get them" the airport/State will more than likely have to "give" Amtrak some type of concessions to be involved at Green. The airport needs Amtrak, Amtrak doesn't need Green Airport. The airline industry has changed over the past 20 years(when Green began expansion plans). Airlines are operated on razor thin profit margins. Cost spikes(or declines) can immediately affect the bottom line. Over the past week on local RI radio, Bradley Airport has been advertising its competitive advantages as a regional airport. Green Airport will find that its airport expansion plans were delayed too long; not all of its own doing, of course. But, they need to realize that they can't compete with Logan Airport. Their competition is/will come from Bradley & Manchester Airports. And Green is the late arriver to this competition. Last that I checked/read, all of their expansion costs are NOT going to be covered by federal grants. They have to cover their excess costs from some source-either passengers/commercial users or so type of State bonding source(RI taxpayers). All the good PR is fine, now, but let's see in 2018 & forward. Time will tell.

    Thursday, April 30, 2015 Report this

  • .

    the state can't afford Amtrak, that's why there is no stop at T.F. Green Jefferson blvd location. If you can't afford to build it, no one will come. Another failure, just like the airport expansion. T.F. Green passenger traffic is plummeting. But let those fumes trickle right into the lungs of the kids. Bravo, well done Warwick leadership.

    Thursday, April 30, 2015 Report this

  • RichardLangseth

    Samuel1677:

    Most people don't realize that the original John Chafee proposal was for a $20 million Amtrak station at Green. This morphed into a $300 million non-Amtrak station with $30 million coming right out of the highway fund as a rescue of the Intermodal even though the highway planning committee opposed that move. Now we can't even finish the repaving of I-95 something that was supposed to happen two years ago. And now the governor is studying merging RIAC RIDOT and RIPTA into some kind of super agency. RIDOT cannot borrow money to fund the state share of federal grants. But RIAC can. Would this combining of agencies get around that RIDOT problem?

    Thursday, April 30, 2015 Report this

  • dickcoutu

    Response to: On 4/30/15 at 09:20 AM, Samuel1677 wrote:

    'The kids, parents and coaches will be entering the ball fields from Airport Rd, wonderful! Make sure to bring your ear plugs and face masks with you!'

    I hear the traffic signal on Airport Road to the new fields will not be installed right away... should be interesting. Traffic 'up the gazoo'!!!

    AIRPORT ROAD IS NOT MAIN AVENUE!!!

    I know where you're coming from. I used to live at 40 Gertrude Avenue (house torn down now) right at the entrance to Winslow Park softball fields. Those poor folks. I had grief for almost 30 years there especially from the instructional field 5!!! Time for the folks on Wilbur Avenue to suck it up. Watch the write up's in the editorials (Warwick Beacon) once they're (AGS and WFFSC) settled in!

    My weekends were never my own anymore when they began playing there especially on the weekends. Rise n' shine on weekends at 6:30 AM to the good folks along Wilbur Avenue.

    Good bye n' good riddins to Winslow Park. Yes folks, there are people who are not in favor of parks such as Winslow Park.

    Friday, May 1, 2015 Report this

  • HerbTokerman

    I really don't think Amtrak would make any difference with international travelers.

    It's not like the regular Amtrak or ACELA is cheap, it would probably cost you more to buy an Amtrak ticket for everyone you're traveling with to then go to NYC or Boston than it would to fly direct to a NYC area airport or Logan.

    Not to mention the added travel time issues, who the heck would want to take a train for a couple of hours after a trans-atlantic flight?

    Tuesday, May 5, 2015 Report this