Port Celebrates Completion of Third Runway Embankment

-Project on budget and schedule for a 2008 opening-

Construction of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's third runway reached a significant milestone on Monday. Port of Seattle Commission President Patricia Davis helped crews place the last load of dirt on the embankment that will support the new all-weather runway.

Davis arrived in one of the nearly 200 trucks that brought dirt to the site over the last three years. On her signal, the driver emptied the truck's final load onto the embankment.

"What a terrific accomplishment," Davis said. "It's hard to visualize that this embankment was built one truckload at a time. That's a lesson for all of us as we take on big challenges in our lives."

The embankment is made up of 17 million cubic yards of high-quality dirt, held in place by one of North America's tallest mechanically stabilized earthen (MSE) retaining walls. The embankment was needed to bring low-lying terrain west of the existing runways up to airfield level.

The next step is for crews to start pouring concrete for the 8500-foot long runway. That's expected to begin next spring.

"We are on budget and on schedule for the first landing in late 2008," Davis said. "We look forward to reducing the kinds of weather-related delays that have long plagued travelers at Sea-Tac."

The third runway is needed because Sea-Tac's existing runways are only 800 feet apart. On cloudy days, arriving aircraft can approach only in a single stream, instead of lining up parallel for both runways. The result is that in 2005 nearly 25% of all flights to Sea-Tac arrived more than 15 minutes behind the published schedule.

The third runway will allow two streams of aircraft to approach Sea-Tac even on cloudy days. Port CEO Mic Dinsmore said the result will be a more efficient operation, with far fewer delays.

"The region has long-awaited this runway," Dinsmore said. "By making air travel more predictable and reliable we position our region for greatly improved economic growth."