Crews at DFW Airport break ground on airfield safety project
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas) - Crews at DFW International Airport broke ground Thursday on the next phase of an airfield safety project aimed at improving safety and efficiency on the runway.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was there to announce an additional $28.8 million in federal funding for the Southwest End-Around Taxiway.
"As technology advances, the economy unfolds, behavior changes, and air travel increases, our safety journey has to continue," said Buttigieg. "That includes supporting our personnel and the physical changes in safety and infrastructure that we're talking about today."
With the use of an end-around taxiway system, planes no longer have to cross an active runway to get to where they're going.
"The taxiways provide the ability for arriving aircraft to continue to taxi rather than having to hold for departing airplanes, so it's obviously a tremendous safety impact, a positive safety impact," said Sean Donahue, CEO of DFW Airport.
The airport has already opened two end-around taxiways on the east side of the airport. The third, the Southeast End-Around Taxiway, will be completed in 2025.
The new system should help prevent close calls on the airfield. So far this year, there have been seven near collisions on U.S. runways.
"While they remain extremely rare, more than one – more than zero – is unacceptable and that's why we continue to focus on issues across the system and opportunities to control those issues," Buttigieg said.
He believes these kind of infrastructure improvements are key to making sure air travel remains the safest mode of transportation in America.
In total, $180 million in federal funding, including the $28.8 million announced on March 30, will go toward the end-around project at DFW Airport.
"I appreciate the way that DFW is looking to the future," said Buttigieg. "DFW will continue to be an economic engine not just for this region, but really for the entire country."
According to DFW Airport, the two end-around taxiways that are open have already improved efficiency on the runway.
On average, planes get to the gate about four minutes faster, which has saved passengers 1,900 hours of departure delays.
