Airport continues assessment of proposed improvements

COLUMBUS – The Ohio State University Airport is continuing the process of assessing the impacts of proposed improvements in the airport’s Master Plan. The airport this week posted preliminary results of community noise monitoring; data that will be used in further studies to project noise levels associated with the proposed projects; and methods used to forecast the number of flights in and out of the airport.

The data were posted to allow a review by the members of the Airport Advisory Committee before they meet June 23 at the airport. The 24-member committee includes representatives of several communities surrounding the airport, as well as officials from the university, the Ohio Department of Transportation, the City of Columbus, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

Airport Director Doug Hammon said it will be a “working meeting,” to allow committee members to discuss the data and provide any revisions before a study team takes the next step, which is to determine noise level predictions using the Integrated Noise Model (INM). Following the committee meeting, the study team will begin the process, and the airport likely will have the results of the study by the end of August.

Wes Butch is the consultant team project manager of DLZ Corp., the firm conducting the overall Environmental Assessment, which includes the noise study. Butch said some very preliminary conclusions can be drawn from the data that has been collected and posted.

First, existing day-night noise levels attributable to aircraft noise were below the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) impact threshold at all community monitoring locations, he said. In addition, non-aircraft noise contributed significantly to community noise levels at most monitoring locations. Additional preliminary findings are:

•Growth of the number of flights into and out of the airport will occur over the long term, regardless of whether the proposed improvements are made.

•The construction of additional hangars would increase the number of flights into and out of the airport to a greater degree than the proposed runway extension.

•The proposed runway extension would result in shifting runway usage, with most jet traffic moving to the north runway.

•Future flight tracks would be very similar to those currently used.

•The percentage of future flights occurring during nighttime would be the same as the percentage of existing night flights.

Hammon said the files posted on the airport’s web site contain two types of information. The first includes a description of methods and results for projections of existing and future annual flights for a number of different scenarios, depending on which improvements are made and when. The second file builds on the first and includes the results of the community noise monitoring conducted in February 2004.

The field noise measurements were taken during day and night time periods from Feb. 17-25 at 15 locations identified after consultation with neighboring communities. Four of the monitoring locations are on the OSU Airport grounds. The remaining 11 locations are in neighborhoods in close proximity to the airport.

Generally, those preliminary results indicate current aircraft noise levels in neighborhoods immediately surrounding the facility are well below established FAA and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines.

The study measured three categories of noise sources: overall noise, including aircraft and community noise sources combined; aircraft noise attributed only to aircraft events; and, community noise, or noise from all non-aircraft sources.

A national standard used by the FAA and the EPA for measuring critical noise levels above which the FAA requires airports to take actions to reduce noise is an average day-night sound level (DNL) of 65 decibels (dB). None of the neighborhoods in the study had average aircraft noise levels above 60 dB.

Of all noise sources tested, only one site in Worthington, 380 Highland Ave., had average measurements in any category above 65 dB. At that location, which abuts a railroad track, both community noise and overall noise average levels registered above 75 dB. Aircraft noise at that site averaged 54 dB.

The file also summarizes operational information to be used in the INM and includes total annual aircraft operations, the kinds of planes using the runways, runway usage, time of day or night flights are occurring, how steeply the planes ascend or descend, flight tracks and weather conditions.

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