FAA Meeting on Dulles Airport Expansion

The FAA is holding an informational meeting/public hearing tonight on the possible expansion of Dulles Airport. It's at Farmwell Station MS in Ashburn Village. Info starts at 5pm, Public Hearing from 6-8pm.

I think the new north-south runway could affect Broadlands, as it's located west of the current north-south runways. Future traffic may be more inclined to turn West after taking off to the North, which puts them right over our houses at a lower altitude (we already hear them in Southern Walk...).

Just in case anyone's interested...
http://www.mwaa.com/dulles/EnvironmentalStudies/newrunwaysEIS/publicmeeting.htm

DcD

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IMHO ... the airport was there first ... its not as if we owners in Broadlands didn't realize that, we've just been lucky with the flight pattern.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

Gosh, I hope we continue to be lucky...

DCDavis - did you attend the meeting? Any new news for us?

 

I stuck around for about an hour or so- there were only about 3 citizens that I heard speak. The rest were organizations/committees that were arguing for the expansion. Two of the citizen speakers asked for time restrictions on IAD just like at DCA. Hah- that ain't happenin'.

The thing that bothers me the most is that their way of judging sound imposition is quite subjective. It's an average of the day/night noise- but it doesn't take into account that a heavy 757/767/777/747, etc will produce MUCH, MUCH more noise than 60 db.

Essentially, the FAA claims there will be no adverse affect on us. They show the noise contours going directly North, when everyone knows for sure that planes often fly a more north-northwest departure pattern.

Two charts were interesting. One shows the number of homes that will be subjected to an additional average 5db of noise due to the new north-south runway. Basically, almost all of Ashburn Village is covered. Definitely they'll notice more noise/traffic. Second- there was a chart that showed the number of additional flights that will cause indoor disturbance (or some term like that). It's a very wide swath, but some areas in Ashburn Village will notice something like 15 more instances of indoor disturbance. Again, it really doesn't cover Broadlands, since they don't factor in the north-northwest departure.

The one good piece of news for us is that the FAA will likely choose to place the new runway 4,300 feet West of the current north-south runways. One option was to place it further West. That would have increased the impact on Broadlands a bit more.

Finally- Neil- I'm not arguing against the expansion or complaining about noise. If the FAA gives us a chance to gain more info or make our concerns known, shouldn't we take advantage of it?

DcD

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thank you for info ... dcdavis .... We all agree, we would be happier if expansion did not dramatically increase airplane fly over / noise .... And Neil we all knew Broadland was near IAD when we bought our house ... thank you ...

 

My point being ... we've been lucky ... we may not be in the future, and all they can do is 'possibly' have takeoffs do noise abatement techniques.

Maybe I'm more sensitive to this issue, having been in the Air Force for 23 years, and seeing how bases were hammered with noise complaints by new housing developments, even though the base had been in place since WWII.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

Neilz... "noise abatement techniques" -- ala John Wayne/Orange County? Or are there other techniques?

BTW - My son LOVES watching the planes, so I'm a bit happy we live so close. [:I]

 

it's that 11:30 sucker that bothers me. It flies over just as I'm drifting off. Other than that I hardly notice them.

 

The "they were their first" argument simply doesn't wash. That doesn't mean it's reasonable to assume they will expand or change their flight patterns to cause more noise after hours. People move to where the jobs are so it's hardly their fault for moving close to an airport. With that kind of logic why don't we blame all the businesses that built the tech corridor here?

 

I've lived here all my life. It is part of living here. It isn't going to go away. You become immune to the sound.

 

You mean, Barbara from South Riding, who is an active participant of Broadland Community Forum