With Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago airline carriers in the final stages of negotiating a $8.5 billion deal to expand O’Hare International Airport, there is already talk about how the project will reverberate beyond the shiny new terminal and gates.
The eight-year plan, which involves tearing down Terminal 2 to build a new “Global Terminal” with wider concourses and gates for the larger aircraft used in international flights, would be the biggest and most expensive reconstruction project in the airport’s 73-year history. The goal is to not only increase the number of international flights, but also create more room for domestic carriers, and reduce gridlock and delays.
If the city is able to get the project financed and underway, the ripple effects could include more noise and pollution in the city and suburbs, more traffic, and possibly new roads and a new rail line. Here are five things to watch for:
1. More noise
More gates at the airport could translate to more jets arriving and departing, and that will mean more jet noise, especially for communities east and west of the airport.
The western suburbs and Chicago neighborhoods east of O’Hare have complained of an increase in jet noise since the airport started shifting more traffic to east-west runways and eliminating diagonal runways in recent years. One of the airport’s diagonal northwest/southeast runways closed in 2015, and another, known as 15-33, will close this spring. The closure will clear space for the expansion, with the possibility of two more western concourses and another western terminal in the future.
“It’s going to make it worse for noise,” said Al Rapp of Fair Allocation in Runways, or FAiR, a group that represents city and suburban residents. FAiR has argued that to provide periodic noise release for communities east and west of the airport, diagonal runway 15-33 should be spared. “For the average person living around the airport, it won’t be good,” Rapp said.
“A bigger O’Hare means more flights and that means more potential conflicts with noises,” said DePaul University transportation expert Joseph Schwieterman. However, he noted that the worst of the new noise has already happened, with the changes in flight patterns.
2. More roads
The Illinois Tollway wants to complete a “beltway” around O’Hare, with new entrance/exit ramps to the west of the airport. The loop around the airport would be composed of a new north-south tollway to the west of the airport called I-490, and that roadway would link to Interstate 90 to the north and the Tri-State Tollway or I-294 to the south. Construction on I-490 is expected to begin in 2019, officials said. Additionally, the I-390 would expand to the east so it would connect to I-490. Together, the price tag for the I-390 and I-490 tollway projects were estimated at $3.4 billion.
But there’s a snag — the Canadian Pacific Railway has balked at allowing the Tollway to build over its tracks at the airport’s western edge, arguing that it would interfere with freight rail operations. The Tollway continues to have “positive conversations” with Canadian Pacific and the city regarding an agreement that would allow the Tollway to cross the CP tracks, Tollway spokesman Dan Rozek said.
Schwieterman said the new O’Hare plan makes the Tollway’s western bypass plans “all but inevitable because of the sheer size of O’Hare and the need for better traffic flow.”
3. O’Hare express line
A massive project at the airport could build momentum for Emanuel’s dream of an an express rail line from downtown to O’Hare.
The process of rebuilding the terminal will create opportunities for “creative solutions” to get express trains into the airport to serve business travelers and tourists, Schwieterman said.
Under the mayor’s plan, the high-speed line would be designed, built, financed, operated and maintained through a public-private partnership with Chicago. Four teams this month have sent in their qualifications to build and operate an express rail system, a first step in getting the project going.
Among the groups is entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Boring Co. Musk says his cutting-edge drilling technology would trim costs on building a subway-like tunnel with pods to whisk riders to and from the airport.
Emanuel has touted the O’Hare train as a way to improve Chicago’s standing as a business destination. The city wants the service to have travel times of 20 minutes or less with a reliable frequency of at least every 15 minutes, with fares that would cost less than a taxi or ride-hailing service but more than the CTA. Such services in other cities have charged $30 or more per rider.
4. More congestion
Building new ways to get to the airport, whether by road or train, will become more urgent as the airport adds planes, and more passengers try to get to and from the airport. Schwieterman said that Interstate 190, which connects the airport to the Kennedy Expressway, isn’t large enough for a big increase in traffic.
DePaul’s Schwieterman said the city is anticipating big increase in passenger traffic, which will overwhelm existing roadways. He said the process of rebuilding the terminals could also be a “headache” for travelers passing through.
5. Pollution control
More flights will mean more jet fuel emissions, said Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health programs at the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago. He said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not done much recently to set tighter sulfur limits on jet fuel, and it varies depending on who makes it and where.
On the other hand, improvements to the airport that decrease plane congestion could also reduce plane operations on the ground, which could reduce some local pollution, Urbaszewski said.
Something else that Chicago can do to lessen pollution at the airport is to require the use of the cleanest running construction equipment while the project is being built, Urbaszewski said. This would include newer or upgraded Tier 4-rated diesel equipment with filters that control the amount of soot that goes into the air better than older equipment, he said. The city could also look at electric-powered airport ground equipment, such as electric taxis and shuttle buses.
mwisniewski@chicagotribune.com
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