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Diagonal runway at O'Hare to close sooner than planned

Posted July 05, 2016 1:00 am

Marni Pyke

A controversial diagonal runway at O'Hare International Airport will close sooner than expected,

The Chicago Department of Aviation said Tuesday that Runway 14-Right/32-Left, located on the northwest side of O'Hare, will be "permanently" decommissioned in 2018.

Previous plans were to retire the runway in 2019. The city is in the midst of constructing a sixth parallel runway on the north airfield, set to open in 2020. The diagonal runway also conflicts with a new highway on the western side of O'Hare being built by the Illinois tollway.

The runway "will close in 2018 based on the current construction schedule," CDA spokesman Owen Kilmer said.

The city is shifting from use of diagonal runways to a parallel system using an east/west flight flow, saying it is safer and more efficient.

Others, such as the Fair Allocation in Runways group, have lobbied to keep all diagonal runways open contending this distributes jet noise more equitably around the region.

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