Floating runways at LAX

For years, Westchester and Playa Del Rey residents have been wrestling with the issue of LAX expansion. A VERY large portion of our town has been forever lost to airport expansion.

In the early 1960’s, a movement to regionalize LAX and move the majority of the flights to Palmdale, CA was close to becoming a reality. In 1966 The Los Angeles Department of Airports, now called Los Angeles World Airports, or LAWA, acquired several thousand acres of land around Plant 42 to be developed into the future "Palmdale Intercontinental Airport," with the goal of surpassing the air traffic of LAX. To date, LAWA has so far not developed its Palmdale airport beyond that of a small commuter airport serving only the Antelope Valley. With few airlines able to sustain long-term service from the airport, only recently had work towards the construction of a larger terminal been started. Apparently, the project has now been scrubbed forever.

Also beginning in the 1960’s, many former homes and residential areas began to be acquired, and or condemned by LAWA. This remains the most hotly contested issue in the area: Expansion or no expansion. However, in many parts of the world, the airport expansion issue has been taken out to sea, and at one point LAX looked offshore as well. Beginning in 1968, plans were made to move a large part of LAX into the Pacific Ocean. No kidding.

Continuing in the tradition of naming our offshore islands after Christian Saints (Santa Catalina, San Nicolas, San Clemente, etc.) a new island: Santa Monica Island, was to be built offshore and connected by two bridges and subways. In the end, the construction would have substantially mitigated the need to condemn homes in the area, and would have drastically lessened aircraft noise.

The idea of a runway in the ocean may seem fantastic to many, but all over the world major international airports have been built on reclaimed land. San Francisco International, Hong Kong’s’ Kai Tak and Singapore’s Changi airports, are all built on manmade-fill. In Tokyo, Japan, and other places, several very serious studies are being held concerning floating runways, called Mega-Floats.

Of course, LAWA officials are well aware of the growth problems faced at LAX. Southern California air traffic is expected to double over the next 20 years. Without further plans and imaginative methods to disperse air traffic away from LAX, Playa Del Rey and Westchester residents will continue an uneasy dance with LAWA; and that outcome can only mean more land being gobbled up by LAX.