New O'Hare Runway, Set to Open Nov. 5, Will Send Arriving Flights Over Southern Park Ridge, City Says
Oct. 20--A new O'Hare Airport runway that is expected to send flights over southern Park Ridge neighborhoods is scheduled to open next month.
The east-west runway, known as 9C/27C, will open Thursday, Nov. 5, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation and the O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission.
Scheduled to be used largely as an arrival runway, it is the first new runway to open at the airport since 2015 and the last new runway to be constructed as part of the airport's modernization project, the department of aviation said. An existing nearby runway is being extended and work is anticipated to continue into 2021, the department said.
According to the city of Park Ridge, planes landing on runway 9C/27C will cross over Park Ridge roughly between Granville and Devon Avenues on the south end of the city.
Sixth Ward Ald. Marc Mazzuca, a liaison to the city's O'Hare Airport Commission, a citizens group that discusses airport-related issues and advocates for residents, shared concerns about impacts he said the runway will have on the city.
"The opening of the additional east-west runway will clearly add to the noise and air pollution burdens O'Hare Airport continues to place on the neighborhoods that surround it," Mazzuca said. "That should come as no surprise to those who have followed the progress of the airport build-out over the years."
Ernst Kosower, chairman of Park Ridge's OAC, said the group has been working to inform residents of the impending opening of the runway though door-to-door visits and notices in the city's Spokesman newsletter. He acknowledged that the city will not know the actual impact of the runway until after it opens, but residents are being warned that "they're going to experience something that they haven't had to experience in the past."
Jim Argionis, a past member of the OAC, also cautioned that the impacts of the new runway may not be fully known right away.
"A lot of people in town may have forgotten about these issues because of the COVID slowdown of transportation, and we haven't been getting the same amount of noise," he said. "But it's definitely going to increase our noise when operations get back to normal -- whenever that is."
Kosower said the OAC wants to be sure that the new runway is used for its intended purpose, which is flight arrivals.
The opening of another east-west runway -- known as 9L/27R -- in November 2008 sparked anger within Park Ridge as residents living in the central portion of the city complained of frequent airline noise and low-flying planes using the arrival runway.
In the years that followed, groups like the Park Ridge O'Hare Commission and FAiR, which advocates for increased distribution of flights so that the same neighborhoods are not constantly impacted by noise, formed in response to heavier air traffic over Park Ridge and Chicago's Northwest Side neighborhoods. The city of Park Ridge has also brought its concerns and complaints to the O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission, an inter-governmental group of municipalities and school districts engaged in dialogue with airport officials over noise.
Mazzuca said the work of groups like the OAC and FAiR have created "opportunities to distribute more of the outbound flight traffic at O'Hare Airport over less-residential areas, and that there are ways to impose less regular burdens on Park Ridge and many of its neighbors when air traffic volume returns to normal."
The O'Hare Modernization Program, also referred to as O'Hare expansion, is expected to be completed next year, according to the Department of Aviation.
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