Port to Study How to Make the Airport More Efficient

The Board of Port Commissioners decided Tuesday to solicit bids for a study on how to use Lindbergh Field more efficiently and ease traffic congestion on Harbor Drive, the main access road to the overburdened airport.

Several commissioners stressed that the study will not deal with potential airport expansion but will look at ways to accommodate an increasing number of flights in a limited space. Lindbergh Field encompasses only 500 acres, and the number of passengers using the airport increased from 4 million in 1980 to 9 million in 1986. Growth is expected to continue.

Looking Ahead 15 Years

Executive Director Don Nay said the study will focus on “How can Lindbergh Field best serve the community for the next 15 years or more?”

For instance, Nay said, the study will examine the possibility of moving several operations--air cargo, in-flight kitchens and fuel storage--to the northern portion of the airport, with access from Washington Street. Trucks serving those facilities would use the Washington Street entrance rather than the Harbor Drive entrance, alleviating congestion on Harbor Drive.

The study will also look at the possibility of building a new terminal for commuter passengers on a triangle-shaped parcel of land next to the shorter of the airport’s two runways. Getting rid of that runway, which handles light planes, will also be considered.

If a commuter terminal were built, a tunnel would probably be dug under the main runway to connect that terminal with existing terminals, Port District Chairman Dan Larsen said.

“We’re just trying to use what we have more efficiently, not handle more flights or more passengers,” he said.

Commissioner Louis Wolfsheimer said there is little doubt that San Diego County will have a new regional airport in the next 15 years.

Crisis Seen in 5 Years

“We’re going to be in a crisis here in about five years,” he said. “I don’t know where we’re going to land all the planes or put all the traffic.”

He added, however, that “until a new site is chosen, we must do everything we can to make this airport livable.”

Making the airport livable, he said, should include finding a way for airport users coming from North County to get to the airport from Interstate 5 more easily. The circuitous route now is “insanity,” Wolfsheimer said.

It will take about 10 weeks to select a company to do the study and another six to eight months to do the study, Nay said.

Pat Rickon, head of the Airport Relocation Committee, urged the Port District to factor in noise levels when they look at runway and terminal capacities, which will be included in the study, but she said she has no quarrel with the study in general.