The busiest runway used by departing flights at Newark Liberty International Airport is getting a needed rehab.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s board of commissioners took the first steps Thursday by allocating $5 million to start engineering work to rehabilitate Runway 4L-22R, an 11,000-foot long and 150-feet airstrip that was last rehabilitated in 2014.
That starts engineering and design work for the planned repaving and work on other infrastructure to improve the runway and make sure it meets Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA) standards.
The most recent inspection of the runway showed its pavement is nearing the end of its useful life.
This project comes after a 2021 $84.2 million project on the parallel, Runway 4R-22L, which is Newark’s primary landing runway and currently handles nearly 47% of the airport’s flight activity. That work was approved in 2019, construction started in April 2021 and the strip reopened five days ahead of schedule on Sept. 25, 2021.
Officials took advantage of a 38% drop in flight volumes from 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate work. That also reduced flight delays and concerns about rerouting air traffic over nearby cities in Union, Essex and Hudson counties.
That project included milling off the old pavement, repaving the runway with asphalt and renovating runway shoulders and intersecting taxiways. The project also includes the complete replacement of electrical infrastructure and installing new light fixtures.
Runways are generally rehabilitated every 10 years, Port Authority officials said.
Two previous runway projects cost travelers in time, due to a reduction in flights and changed flight patterns.
A 2014 project to add high-speed taxiways to the runway resulted in a two month shut down and a shift in air traffic that sent more flights over Jersey City, Bayonne and Staten Island. It also resulted in a reduction in flights during certain times.
The 2012 runway repaving project also sent low flying planes over sections of Jersey City, which led to complaints by residents.
©2022 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
