Currently, more than 75.9 million people fly into and out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (HJAIA) every year. Facing ever increasing demands to reduce landing and takeoff delays, noise and air pollution levels amid ever increasing safety concerns, and airline demands for more flights; this issue of Perspectives overviews how a consultant team helped one of the world’s busiest airports address their growth challenges.

Already the size of 2,885 football fields placed side by side, and surrounded by interstate highways on three sides, Hartsfield-Jackson with four existing parallel runways was inadequate to handle the projected mix of air carrier and commuter aircrafts in the coming years. Additional community concerns over increased emissions from longer aircraft circling patterns before landing and longer waits on the taxiway before takeoffs, and noise from flight patterns weighed heavily on the airport expansion plans

The Solution - Triple, Parallel, Simultaneous, Landing Runways
After an extensive strategic planning process that began in the late 80s, The City of Atlanta, Department of Aviation approved the preliminary design of a new 9,000-linear foot 5th Runway and associated taxiway, to be constructed on the south side of the airport. The plan required construction of a bridge and tunnel to facilitate extension of the proposed runway and associated taxiway over the existing Georgia DOT Interstate, I-285. At an estimated cost of $1.2 Billion, completion of the new 5th runway (Runway 10R/28L) will be one of the most complex structures of its kind in the world. Atlanta will be one of only a few airports in the world capable of accommodating triple, simultaneous aircraft landings. .

This is the first Road Tunnel in the State of Georgia as defined by NFPA 502 and the first Runway Bridge of this span length in the world. Scheduled for completion in mid-year 2006, aircraft will land and take off atop a 400-linear foot runway bridge spanning 10 lanes of traffic on the Interstate Highway-285 a few dozen feet below.

“The City of Atlanta and the airlines at Hartsfield-Jackson have authorized the Airport to spend an impressive $5.4 Billion towards their 10-year development program. This program will assure that Hartsfield-Jackson maintains its global leadership role”, said Benjamin DeCosta, HJAIA Aviation General Manager.

Growth Issues
Passenger Capacity: Working within an existing 3,750-acre, landlocked airport that is surrounded by interstate highways on three sides, the City of Atlanta, Department of Aviation was faced with the need to increase the passenger capacity of its Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (HJAIA) from a baseline level of 57.7 million in 1995 to 121 million in 2015.

Cargo Capacity: Annual cargo tonnage at Hartsfield-Jackson is expected to grow from a baseline level in 1995 of 545,000 metric tons to a level of 1,530,000 metric tons in 2015.

Aircraft Operations: Daily aircraft operations are forecasted to increase from a baseline condition of 2,066 in 1995 to a level of 3,330 in 2015. Already the size of 2,885 football fields placed side by side, Hartsfield-Jackson and it’s four existing runways which, run east-west, parallel with the prevailing winds, were deemed inadequate to handle projected air carrier and commuter capacity in the coming years. Additional community concerns over increases in environmentally destructive emissions from longer aircraft circling patterns before landing and longer waits on the taxiway before takeoffs, and noise from flight patterns weighed heavily on the airport expansion plans.

Technical Considerations
To address noise concerns and impact to the surrounding area, it was determined that the new runway would essentially be a landing runway that would be constructed south of the airport. The next major concern was runway separations.

Runway Separations
Hartsfield-Jackson Airport currently has two sets of parallel runways located north and south of the Midfield Terminal Complex. In both cases one of the runways is primarily for take-offs, while the other is for landing. The new runway, 10/28, and the existing 9R/27L would be parallel landing runways. “The team went through considerable research with FAA to establish a safe separation utilizing the guiding criterion that two airplanes performing a simultaneous landing, should both be able to abort landing without a near miss”, said Eric Glover, Project Engineer on the Runway Development. After extensive calculations, a 4,200-foot separation was established.

Site Development
The new 9,000-foot runway required acquisition of 280 parcels to assemble approximately 420 acres of land. The proposed runway site required supply and placement of 18.5 million yards of earth embankment with heights as high as 80 feet (enough dirt to fill the Georgia Dome six times over). To establish embankments of that height and volume, the settlement movement of the existing ground had to be carefully studied for both payment quantities and to predict embankment’s primary and long term settlement. Special consideration was given to trucking the extensive amount of material to the site versus utilizing a conveyor system to stock pile the dirt and transport it to the site as needed. Ultimately to reduce the amount of traffic, noise and pollution around the airport, a five-mile conveyor belt system was recommended to carry the dirt from the staging area across the expressway to the construction locations.

Creek Relocations
Two major creeks (Flat Rock Creek and Sullivan Creek) and two major roadways (Riverdale Road and West Fayetteville Road) ran directly through the development of the new Fifth Runway and required relocation and/or enclosure. Flat Rock Creek, the smaller of the two impacted creeks, was routed into an 84-inch drainage pipe and allowed to flow beneath the runway. Sullivan Creek was placed in an 1800-foot long double 10’x12’ box culvert. The structural design of the box culvert was of significant concern. Based on the geotechnical report, portions of the box culvert alignment would rest solidly on bedrock, while neighboring portions of the culvert rested on compressible soils whose anticipated settlement was as high as three feet. Differential settlement was a concern. Understanding the significance of this problem, several design options were examined. Another concern was that in the final condition, the box culvert would be 60 to 80 feet under proposed fill. The designer’s choice of foundations to support the culvert in the compressible soil zones was 54 inch reinforced drilled piers and a lean concrete leveling pad within the bed rock zones.

Roadway Relocations
Initial planning considered Riverdale Road and West Fayetteville Road to be routed through two sets of tunnels beneath the proposed runway. However careful analysis revealed that the construction cost of the tunnels would be 40 plus million dollars each. With significant input from the Georgia Department of Transportation, it was determined that the first arterial roadway could be routed around the proposed runway and the second would dead-end into a “T” intersection with the realigned first arterial roadway. The new combined roadway segment consists of two lanes in each direction separated by a grass median, with intermittent center turning lanes. The design provided for future expansion to four lanes. Bike lanes and sidewalks were included in the road corridor. The design included installation of two new sanitary force mains and pumping stations to accommodate the existing gravity sanitary lines, and construction of a retaining wall, in excess of 54 feet in height. Curb and gutters and associated storm sewer systems were included in the work. Other work in this project included traffic signals, lighting, grassing, striping and signage, miscellaneous demolition and removals, and permanent security fencing.

Runway Profile
The vertical runway profile was another serious consideration. Establishing the profile as close to the existing ground as possible would minimize expensive earthwork. The runway approaches had to however clear an adjacent interstate highway ramp, which was found to be the critical clearance height for landing aircrafts..

In Conclusion
Hartsfield-Jackson is in the fifth year of a 10-Year, capital improvement project. It is the largest public works project in the history of the state of Georgia that will address the challenges entering a new millennium and will take Hartsfield-Jackson well into the 21st Century.

As managing partner in the joint venture team providing general consulting support to HJAIA for over twenty-five years, Williams-Russell, & Johnson, Inc. (WR&J) was involved in the program since its inception and played a significant role in the development, planning and design of the 5th Runway and numerous other airside improvements at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.