Detroit proposes 10,000-foot runway, would displace 15% of town

[machaf]

Why don't they utilize the four runways they have instead of building more.

 

[DrewBlows]

Why don't they utilize the four runways they have instead of building more.

The plan is for growth traffic. If they waited until they had the traffic there would be gridlock, a la JFK.

 

[Gulf-front]

I'm sure the people living in Romulus would disagree with bulldozing their homes. Home is home, no matter how bad!

Huckabee can't win because he's not a snake in the grass.

 

[jdubya]

Detroit sold for scrap

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/46937

 

[PCL_128]

Why don't they utilize the four runways they have instead of building more.

They already utilize the four parallel runways.

 

[regionaltard]

Does that mean if they built a 66,660' runway they could get rid of the whole place?

 

[RJP]

They need a longer runway to allow bigger, longer-range aircraft of the future to fly the poor bastards who are there farther and farther away from Detroit.

Go Tigers though.

 

[Princedietrich]

I freight-dawgged out of that airport and I can heartily agree that Romulus is a festering pit. The other south Detroit neighborhoods aren't much better.

One thing that always did baffle me was that the 9/27 runways were never used. At all. Most of the time I wasn't even permitted to taxi on them because they were always covered with construction barricades. No work being done on them, but the barricades were there.

 

[WMUSIGPI]

27L was used extensively last year while 21L/3R was being rebuilt.
I've never seen the 9's used probably because of the conflicts that would cause with Willow Run and because there are no approaches to them. The 27's do get used occasionally with strong west winds. I have seen that a few times in the last several months. I think that they don't use them more primarily because of an agreement with the neighborhoods east of the airport for noise purposes and secondary because ... well there are only 2 as opposed to the 4 parallels normally used.... Detroit has too much traffic to only use 2 runways at a time.

 

[John Pennekamp]

I really don't think DTW has the traffic to justify 5 parallel runways. ATL had four up until a little over a year ago, and it's been near the busiest or the busiest in the nation for decades. DTW is nowhere near that level of traffic.

And if they were wise, they'd wait until the merger mumbo jumbo settles down and re-evaluate the runway plan. It would be a shame if they moved all those people and built a new runway, then Delta scaled back DTW like AA did to STL. Now Bridgeton, MO is gone and a fancy new runway is rarely used. The government never seems to learn from its mistakes.

 

[nimtz]

Seriously man, DTW's got more concrete then it knows what to do with. Wish the NYC airports had that kind of luxury.

 

[On Your Six]

Just have the newly-combined Delta reduce service at DTW post merger - that way the extra runway won't be needed. Then increase service at MSP to appease those politicians. With the declining auto industry, DTW won't need increasing flights in the future anyway... See, now everyone is happy - including the Romulans.

 

[John Pennekamp]

Just have the newly-combined Delta reduce service at DTW post merger - that way the extra runway won't be needed. Then increase service at MSP to appease those politicians. With the declining auto industry, DTW won't need increasing flights in the future anyway... See, now everyone is happy - including the Romulans.

That's probably a likely scenario. The Michigan economy, especially in the Detroit area, is hanging from a thread. I think the growth plan is overly optimistic. As I said, ATL made due for years as the nations busiest airport with only 4 runways. Surely DTW can go 10-20 more years with 4.

 

[PCL_128]

Just have the newly-combined Delta reduce service at DTW post merger - that way the extra runway won't be needed. Then increase service at MSP to appease those politicians. With the declining auto industry, DTW won't need increasing flights in the future anyway... See, now everyone is happy - including the Romulans.

MSP can barely handle the traffic they have already.

 

[B6Busdriver]

Why not? No one can sell there house in Detoilet...I mean Detroit anyway.