New $1 billion Sea-Tac runway is dedicated

Published 11:44 pm Thursday, November 20, 2008

SEATAC — Low clouds and showers were perfect for Thursday’s dedication of a new Seattle-Tacoma International Airport third runway that cost more than $1 billion, nearly five times the original estimate.

At 150 feet wide and 17 inches thick, the first new runway at the 61-year-old airport since 1973 was intended mainly to reduce weather-related flight delays.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters directed air traffic controllers to clear the new 8,500-foot ribbon of concrete for the first takeoff, an Alaska Airlines flight to Denver.

Minutes later, a United flight from Chicago became the first to touch down on the new runway.

With two runways available for simultaneous use at times of rain and low cloud ceiling, Port of Seattle and Federal Aviation Administration officials expect to reduce delays to an average of 2 1/2 minutes per flight from 10 minutes when service has been limited to one runway at the nation’s 18th busiest airport.

“Today Seattle is delivering on a 20-year promise,” Peters told a crowd of about 400. And she couldn’t resist adding, “This new runway is going to make traveling in and out of Sea-Tac about as easy as, well, finding a latte in Seattle.”

Gov. Chris Gregoire praised the environmental sensitivity incorporated in the construction and said the project was vital for Washington.

“This investment for us today is the way to grow our economy and remain the most international trade-dependent state in the country,” she said.

Last year 347,046 takeoffs and landings were recorded and 31.3 million passengers passed through Sea-Tac, and the port has a $4.1 billion capital development plan to prepare for an anticipated 46 million passengers by 2024.

The runway project received $301 million in federal airport improvement funds. The local share is being financed through fees of $4.50 per passenger.

Combined with shoulders and eight connecting taxiways, the third runway required 130,000 cubic yards of concrete and 35,000 tons of asphalt to build — and that’s just at the surface.

Before construction could begin, work crews had to haul 500,000 truckloads of dirt to create a 1,430-foot-long artificial plateau supported by a 130-foot retaining wall, the largest of its kind in North America, to reach the level of the two existing runways.

Surrounding suburban municipalities spent $15 million in a 10-year legal struggle to ground the project before throwing in the towel in 2004, the year the actual runway construction began.

Opponents did gain about $150 million for environmental mitigation, including restoration, enhancement and creation of 121 acres of wetlands and relocation of 1,500 feet of Miller Creek, in which coho salmon were seen spawning this year.

Their efforts also figured strongly in soaring costs. Estimates took off from $217 million in 1992 to $405 million in 1996 and $587 million in 1999, reaching a final tally of more than $1.01 billion.

Port officials maintain that the Sea-Tac runway will save $4.76 billion in reduced delays for travelers and in lower fuel consumption and crew time for airlines over 25 years.

While airport officials blamed delays, litigation, rising material costs, environmental conditions and permit requirements, a state audit in December determined that port management wasted nearly $100 million in airport construction contracts between 2004 and 2007, that some port staff had improper relationships with contractors and that the five elected port commissioners were lax in oversight of the project.

Port officials disputed the $100 million figure and other findings but also tightened a number of management practices.