Logan 6th Runway

More than 30 years after it originally was proposed, a controversial runway at Logan International Airport is set to open.The mile-long strip, known as Runway 14/32, will be ready for use beginning Thursday. The runway is expected to cut delays, especially during cold months when prevailing northwest winds effectively can shut Logan down to a single runway each for takeoffs and landings.

Original plans for a sixth runway at Logan were put on hold in 1976, when opponents worried about noise and increased air traffic got a court injunction to block it. The proposal was resurrected in the 1990s, and a state judge lifted the injunction in November 2003, allowing construction to go forward. The last legal barrier was removed in 2004 when the state's Supreme Judicial Court rejected the town of Hull's objection.

"For anybody who was around in the 1970s when the battle over airport expansion was in the papers every single day, day after day, it is amazing to think 14/32 would ever actually get built," said John Vitagliano, a former Massachusetts Port Authority board member.
By court order, use of the runway is restricted to planes taking off and landing over Boston Harbor. Massport also can use it only during about a third of the year when winds are from the northwest or southeast. Because the runway is half the size of Logan's three main jet runways, it will serve smaller planes.

But Massport predicts the runway will reduce delays not related to poor weather or air traffic congestion along the East Coast by 25 percent on average and by 90 percent on some windy days. People living in neighborhoods near the airport remain critical of the addition.
"We will not be giving thanks for this new runway on Thanksgiving day," said Mary Ellen Welch, a Jeffries Point resident. "When you get right down to it, it's going to increase noise. There will be more operations, more arrivals, more departures, and therefore there will be more noise and more traffic over our heads and next to our heads."