BWI Partners Group
On Wednesday June 15th there was the quarterly meeting at the Maryland Aviation Administration office. This started with an update of the various road construction jobs by the State Highway Administration. The roads mentioned were MD 170, I-97, MD 100, and MD 295. Of course our interest is MD 170, so I made notes of the following: they will start milling next week and anticipate completion in September. The ramp from 695 will also be repaved and they will go into School Lane more than originally planned. There is no current plan to repave Md. 169 (Maple Road). We will have to fight for this to be paved.
With respect to airplane noise, you may have noticed an increase in the noise level or you may have noticed the opposite. In the past planes taking or landing were controlled by people in the tower. Now they use a satellite to guide them. This has created a tighter pattern for takeoffs and landings causing a higher noise lever for those under the new more compact turn pattern and a lower noise level for those who had reduced traffic. Another cause of increased noise is due to new guidelines that have lowered the minimum altitude when starting a turn. This raised a lot of concern and comment from those neighbors who were there to find out why they have more noise. Mister Paul Shank, the MAA chief engineer, said he would approach the FAA to see if they could raise the height of a flight before turning which means the planes will be giving off less noise.
The runway reworking will be complete prior to the mandated time of 12/30/15. Part of the reconstruction was to widen runways and give longer takeoff and landing distance in order to meet federal safety guidelines. It was decided to repair the runway surfaces so that they will last another 20 years without needing repair every year. In addition the lighting was replaced with LED lighting to provide better visibility.
It was also mentioned that the noise monitors are very old and some are not working. They have put a budget request in for funding newer more modern monitors. They hope to have a more accurate noise report for the next meeting which will be in three months.
Ken Glendennig