Runway opens while opponents remember threat to cemetery

New construction at O'Hare International Airport got its first real test Thursday as airplane after airplane landed on the recently completed extension of Runway 10/28.

The additional 3,000 feet on the east-west runway, originally 10,000 feet, benefits heavy jets bound for Asia, which require extra length for takeoff.

O'Hare already has one diagonal 13,000-foot runway but that will be taken out of service eventually as the airport gradually moves toward a parallel, east-west runway system.

A new north runway is set to be commissioned Nov. 20 along with an air traffic control tower.

Runway 10/28 is the airport's busiest runway, so work on it required extensive coordination with airlines and controllers to ensure work crews and equipment didn't interfere with flights, Chicago officials said.

"This project came in $33 million under budget and 56 days ahead of schedule, which is a huge victory for us," O'Hare Modernization Program Executive Director Rosemarie Andolino said.

While Chicago officials, including Mayor Richard M. Daley, celebrated the runway commissioning, a different kind of airport-related event will occur Sunday afternoon.

A memorial service and gathering is set for 3:30 p.m. at St. Johannes Cemetery. The graveyard consecrated in 1849 is located within O'Hare and is in the path of another new runway designed as part of the modernization project.

Many Bensenville residents are buried there and the village has been fighting the expansion project in part because of the cemetery and also because 600 village properties are slated to be demolished to make way for a bigger airport.

The Rev. Michael Kirchoff, a member of the St. Johannes Cemetery Committee, said the service will honor those buried at the site and bring comfort to the living who are affected by the expansion plan.

"No one hears the story about the human lives that have been affected," he said. "People have lost their homes and lost their jobs. It has a real ripple effect."