SR-800-006-01 (6)
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~J City of
Santa Monica'"
City Council Report
City Council Meeting: February 27, 2007
Agenda Item: Be
To:
Mayor and City Council
From:
Robert Trimborn, Acting Airport Director
Subject:
Update on Proposed Runway Safety Enhancements for Santa Monica
Airport.
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council direct City Staff to assess the operational data
received from users of the Santa Monica Airport, comments from interested parties and
conclude its discussions with the FAA regarding the City's proposal to significantly
enhance operational runway safety margins at the Santa Monica Airport.
Executive Summary
The Santa Monica Municipal Airport is an aviation facility used primarily by smaller
aircraft operating on a non-scheduled basis. 'While maintenance of the facility is the
responsibility of the City of Santa Monica, the aviation activities are under the direct
control of the Federal Aviation Administration. As a result, aircraft use of the Santa
Monica Airport is at the discretion of the FAA, not the City.
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This report endeavors to:
1) Provide an historical overview of the issues that led to the analysis of the
relationship between the Airport's physical layout and the substantive change
in the mix of aircraft using the facility
2) The rational behind the development the Aircraft Conformance Program
("ACP"), an aircraft compatibility concept designed to enhance the overall
safety of aircraft operations
3) Chronicles various meetings, related topics and milestones of the City's
attempt to develop appropriate runway safety enhancements within the
concept of the ACP
4) Provides a summary of events leading up to the current runway safety area
concept and provides an iterative process to gain input/comments from the
City Council, Airport Commission and other interested parties regarding the
proposal.
It is important to note that the runway safety area enhancements discussed in this
report are conceptual in nature and represent a proposal gleaned from ongoing
negotiations with the FAA. The ultimate goal is to create the safest possible aircraft
operating environment to protect the flying and the non-flying public alike. Several
public input meetings remain to be held including a technical presentation of the
proposal during an Airport Commission meeting/workshop. The process is intended to
maximize the input from the public regarding the runway safety enhancements before a
final decision is made by the City Council; FAA approvals are secured; and the
appropriate documents are negotiated and signed by the parties.
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Background
In the past 20 years, the type of aircraft capable of using the Airport has changed for
several reasons. First, technology has permitted some larger and faster aircraft to
operate on a 5000 foot runway unlike its predecessors of similar size and speed.
Second, new forms of ownership have made larger aircraft financially accessible to a
larger number of companies and individuals. Third, increased security at larger air
carrier airports like Los Angeles International Airport, have made use of general aviation
aircraft a more attractive alternative for business travel.
The factors listed above have resulted in a change in the aircraft fleet mix using the
Airport. Although smaller general aviation aircraft are still the dominant aircraft in use at
the Airport, a growing and significant segment of the aircraft using the Airport are the
newer larger and faster aircraft that were previously unable to use smaller general
aviation airports like Santa Monica. Since the newer aircraft require use of a greater
length of the runway, the City undertook a study to determine if runway safety
enhancements were necessary to address these more demanding aircraft.
On July 22, 2002, the Santa Monica Airport Commission voted to have the Santa
Monica Airport Design Standards Analysis serve as a basis for the Aircraft
Conformance Program's ("ACP") proposal to address the faster and larger aircraft.
Following the Airport Commission's action, City staff briefed the FAA staff of the
Western/Pacific Region on the concept on October 1, 2002. One week later on October
8, 2002, the FAA responded with a formal administrative complaint against the City for
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proposing the ACP concept. On December 10, 2002, the City Council was briefed on
the ACP concept and the pending objections of the FAA. The City Council approved
the ACP in concept and directed the staff to:
. Continue to meet with the FAA to resolve the matter;
. Review the legal, environmental and operational consequences of
implementing the ACP; and
. Conduct an engineering review and analysis for implementing the runway
safety area recommendations.
Following the City Council's directions, City staff has supplemented its initial studies and
met a number of times with the FAA to move the issue from a dispute over whether the
ACP was necessary to a discussion over the scope of the runway safety enhancements
needed to address safety at the Airport.
On April 28, 2003, the first of a series of meetings was held at the Santa Monica Airport
in order to permit the FAA staff to view the difficult physical layout of the Airport and to
discuss the basis for the ACP. After considering the City's concerns, the FAA
responded on October 15, 2003 by recognizing the difficult environment on and
surrounding the Airport and offered to meet again. At the November 20, 2003 meeting, it
was decided that the City would conduct further studies on alternative aircraft arresting
systems and property acquisitions while the FAA studied runway safety determinations
for the current layout of the Airport and develop a statement regarding FAA
responsibility for actions by pilots operating aircraft.
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Beginning in December 2003 and continuing into 2004, staff continued to work on
completing the studies requested by the FAA and the engineering work recommended
by the City Council. An addendum to the City's initial report was issued on May 28,
2004 and that was followed by engineering studies and an updated Airport Layout Plan
in August 2004. On September 8, 2004, City staff submitted the updated information to
the FAA for its consideration. The FAA staff studied the proposed ACP plan from the
later part of 2004 through most of 2005. In late 2005 and early 2006, based on support
from the State of California and the office of Congressman Waxman and direct
communication with the national staff of the FAA, City staff was able to arrange a
meeting in Washington DC on February 16, 2006 to discuss its concerns over the
proposed ACP plan. The February meeting, as well as subsequent meetings on
October 3, 2006 and November 14, 2006 in Washington DC addressed the mutual
concerns of the FAA and the City and clarified the need to address the runway safety
issue.
After reaching a tentative consensus in the 2006 meetings on possible safety
enhancements, City staff and FAA representatives decided that it was necessary to
have operational data from users of the Airport. Although no plan was been adopted
and agreed upon, it was agreed to present a joint concept plan to Airport users in order
to obtain the operational data from them. The discussion concept envisions a 300 foot
runway safety area on the west end of the runway with a 250 foot Engineered Materials
Arresting System (EMAS) bed within the RSA and a 600 foot RSA on the east end of
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the runway due to the physical inability to use EMAS on the east end of the runway. On
December 12, 2006, the FAA held a meeting at which the operational data was
requested from the users of the Airport by February 15, 2007. City staff will be seeking
comments and information at the Airport Commission meeting of March 26, 2007.
Based upon the discussions with the FAA staff; subsequent studies by the City,
including an assessment by the City and the FAA of the operational data to be
submitted by users of the Airport, and input from interested parties at the public
meetings to be held in March 2006, City staff anticipates that it will provide the City
Council with the proposed project in the Spring of 2007 with information regarding the
legal, environmental and operational consequences of implementing the ACP.
Discussion
Although the current runway of approximately 5000 feet at the Santa Monica Municipal
Airport has remained largely unchanged since the late 1940's, aircraft design changes
and technological advances in aviation have caused an evolution in the type of aircraft
capable of using the Airport. The ability of an aircraft to land or depart from the Airport
depends on its wingspan, operating speed, weight and weather. Since the factors listed
above vary, there is not a clear demarcation line separating the aircraft that can operate
at the Airport and those aircraft that are beyond the Airport's safe operating limits. In
order to assess its options for enhancing the safe operating margins for the Airport, the
staff's analysis reviewed possible options to address this issue.
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By 2002, the Santa Monica Airport Design Standards Analysis documented that a
majority of the aircraft operations were within the FAA's B-II design designation of the
Airport, but a growing category of larger and faster aircraft using the Airport were not
within the original B-II design criteria. While larger and faster aircraft have shown the
ability to safely operate at the Airport, City staff was concerned about the decreasing
margin of safety from the increase in the number of these aircraft using the Airport. City
staff was particularly concerned about the lack of clear areas at runway ends to serve
as runway safety areas.
At the time of the study, it did not appear that a physical change in the Airport nor a
technological solution would address the issue of the larger and faster aircraft. The
Santa Monica Airport Design Standards Analysis recommended the implementation of
the ACP to accommodate only those aircraft within the Airport Reference Code of B-II.
Additionally, the analysis recommended the designation of runway safety areas by
displacing the landing thresholds 300' at either end of the runway consistent with B-II
standards. The proposed change was intended to create runway safety areas at both
ends of the existing runway without shortening the runway itself.
As a new and unprecedented concept, the discussions over its implementation required
a review of new technology in runway safety enhancements and updates on the
evolving technological capabilities of the aircraft using general aviation airports. With no
other airport to use as a model or reference point, the discussions with the FAA over the
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period from 2003 to 2006 required reviewing unique issues within the context of the
City's legal obligation to maintain the Airport as a reliever airport to Los Angeles
International Airport in the national system of airports. During the course of the City and
FAA discussions, one of the more significant technological changes was the
improvement in an aircraft arresting system called the Engineered Materials Arresting
System (EMAS). EMAS is specially prepared concrete that collapses under the weight
of an aircraft in a way that is designed to slow down and capture an aircraft overrunning
the end of the runway without loss of life or property. The technological change and
improvement in EMAS made its use at the Santa Monica Airport a viable option to
consider. Since the runway safety enhancements sought by the City are unique, the
determination of the best combination of safety options requires consultation with
experts and the public to determine the effects and benefits to users of the Airport and
residents living near the Airport.
The FAA convened a meeting on December 12, 2006 at the FAA's Western-Pacific
Regional Headquarters in Hawthorne to explain the need for runway safety areas to the
pilots/operators who routinely use the Airport; to gain data/feedback on their operations;
and the affect the proposed runway safety enhancements would have on those
operations. An operational impact survey form was distributed to those in attendance.
The process of gathering operational data from aviation companies and individual
aircraft owners ended on February 15, 2007. Assembly of the comments for analysis by
the FAA and the City will permit a technical presentation of the RSA proposal to both
the City Council and the Airport Commission in March or April of this year. The
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operational survey seeks to determine if certain aircraft will be prevented or limited from
using the Airport under the RSA proposal, and if limited, what the limitations would be
for that operator. Staff and the FAA will give a detailed overview of the RSA proposal
including the results of the Santa Monica Airport User Survey during the Airport
Commission meeting in March. The process will continue in the near future to provide
for input and comments from the public in meetings with the City Council and the Airport
Commission. After receiving direction from the City Council, City Staff will meet with the
FAA to complete resolution of airport safety enhancements.
BudQetlFinanciallmpact
The cost of the proposed Runway Safety Area improvements have not been fully
defined pending the outcome of the data gathering process.
Prepared by:
Robert D. Trimborn, Acting Airport Director
Approved:
Forwarded to Council:
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