U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday for the first time that he supports new runways at O’Hare International Airport, a sticking point that has focused national attention on Chicago’s pivotal role in the flight delay crisis.
Durbin said he will contact Gov. George Ryan and Mayor Richard Daley on Monday and urge the two leaders to work with him to “reach a mutual agreement by July 1” on expanding the flight capacity and improving safety at O’Hare.
“I’m signing on for making an investment in O’Hare that is going to mean new runways,” Durbin said in a telephone interview Sunday night. “We have a choice. We either face the unpopular decisions and make them, or we run the risk of having the decisions taken away from us.”
Durbin’s comments came two days after U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa warned that Congress might approve legislation requiring the construction of more runways at O’Hare if the local political logjam couldn’t be broken.
Durbin said he will leave it to the airport professionals “to decide whether O’Hare needs one, two, three new runways or a reconfiguration of existing runways” that may or may not increase the current total of seven runways.
“But we need to say to our critics that we’ve finally accepted our responsibility,” Durbin said. “That means saying, `I’m for the runways.'”
Durbin is a Daley ally who previously has declined to take a clear-cut position on how to solve the nearly 20-year-old political impasse.
Ryan opposes new runways at O’Hare and backs building a third airport at Peotone, although he said recently that he is open to a compromise and urged Daley to submit a plan for O’Hare.
Daley has long opposed a Peotone airport and said a solution can be worked out at O’Hare and Midway Airports.
Harkin and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) have proposed legislation that calls for federal intervention to build two new runways at O’Hare–effectively eliminating the governor’s power to veto new runway construction at O’Hare–if state and Chicago authorities fail to reach an accord.
During an appearance earlier Sunday on the North Side, Durbin said, “I think an expansion of O’Hare is inevitable. It’s preferable.”
In a jab at O’Hare critics who demand a cap on flights because of noise and pollution concerns, Durbin said: “Those who want to turn O’Hare into some sort of forest preserve ought to take the next plane out of town. O’Hare is an important economic asset for our region. We can’t walk away from it.”
Runways could decline
Under several possible scenarios involving the construction of parallel runways, which allow aircraft to take off and land simultaneously even in poor weather conditions, the number of O’Hare runways could actually decline.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the general rule of thumb is that one additional runway increases an airport’s capacity 30 to 50 percent, but officials said a smaller gain would be expected at O’Hare because of its complex air-traffic procedures and the likelihood that all crossing runways would not be eliminated.
“Whatever the case, O’Hare needs to be reconfigured so that the larger airplanes can land in poor weather conditions and so O’Hare doesn’t back up air traffic across the nation,” Durbin said.
Illinois’ senior senator said he doesn’t expect all of his constituents or every member of the Illinois congressional delegation to agree with him. He cited only one individual, Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.). Fitzgerald vehemently opposes any expansion at O’Hare and has said he believes the demand for commercial aviation in the region can be met easily by following Ryan’s plan to build a new airport in Will County.
“I don’t know how successful this effort will be, but after all these years I think that by July 1 we should have an agreement between the city and the state and with the blessings of many members of the congressional delegation,” Durbin said.
No specific plan
Without a specific City of Chicago plan for expansion to consider, Ryan press secretary Dennis Culloton said Sunday night the governor could not commit to a deadline to resolve the issue or react to Durbin’s support for new runways.
“I think we need to see a specific plan first. Sen. Durbin indicated that he was going to try to bring the parties together. His involvement will be helpful, I’m sure, but I just can’t speculate on what influence it will have until I’ve seen a plan,” Culloton said.
“I think it will help,” Culloton said of Durbin’s stand. “The governor will certainly talk to Sen. Durbin, but this is an enormously complicated issue. There are some scenarios where you couldn’t even agree to build a road that quickly.”
For now, Ryan’s position remains unchanged, Culloton said.
“The governor has not been for [new] runways; he has been for Peotone. But he has acknowledged numerous times that when you negotiate, you have to be able to consider all points of view. The misconception has been that the governor has somehow rejected some particular plan out of hand because he has not been a proponent of new runways.”
Daley spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard could not be reached Sunday night for comment.
John Geils, the mayor of Bensenville and the chairman of the Suburban O’Hare Commission that represents 14 communities, said he would be disappointed if Durbin supported new runways at O’Hare.
“We feel that the facts dictate we need a third airport, and new runways at O’Hare would just kill the third airport at Peotone, and Sen. Durbin knows that,” Geils said.
“This would just continue to take care of the short-term need while the long-term need would be ignored. … This is all about protecting the self-interest of a few at the expense of the region.”
Durbin said Harkin’s visit to Chicago played a role in the timing of his decision to publicly favor O’Hare expansion.
“Flight delays are no longer an option,” Harkin said Friday, adding that if a local deal did not materialize in a few weeks, “I would not be averse to using my position on the [Senate] Appropriations Committee to ensure that something happens.”
A possible deal presumably would include Daley getting runways at O’Hare in exchange for dropping his opposition to Ryan’s plans for Peotone.
Deadlines
Harkin, who met Friday with members of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, set a deadline of “June or July” for the local compromise to be hashed out.
He made it clear that broad national interests were at stake because the nation’s commercial airline and airport system cannot function smoothly when the flight demands placed on O’Hare routinely outstrip the airport’s runway capacity.
“Sen. Harkin’s visit was a wakeup call,” Durbin said. “We’ve run out of excuses and we’ve run out of time. If we put this decision off any longer, we will jeopardize the air service at O’Hare and risk damaging the economic vitality of the region.”
Durbin said most people he knows operate well under a deadline.
“I don’t think in three or four weeks we can come up with a specific layout for the airport, but we can agree on a strategy, which is either adding or reconfiguring runways to make sure O’Hare is safe, operates more efficiently and is ready to serve the passenger demand in the region and the state well toward the 22nd Century,” he said.
Durbin said he is not convinced that the proposed Peotone airport, set on 24,000 acres, could become a major hub airport or surpass the 7,000-acre O’Hare. But he said he has written letters to state and federal authorities recommending that environmental studies proceed at Peotone.
“I am not opposed to building a new airport,” Durbin said. “I think it’s inevitable.”
