Stephen Hockaday – Testimony, House Aviation Subcommittee

My name is Stephen Hockaday. I am a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at California Polytechnic State University. I received my Ph.D. in Air Transportation from the University of California, Berkeley, with a dissertation on the separation of landing aircraft in instrument weather conditions. I have been active in airport planning and air traffic control for twenty five years. I am a registered professional civil engineer, environmental engineer, and traffic engineer. believe that a third air carrier runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport ("Sea-Tac") is not a sensible part of the solution to the Puget Sound region's airport capacity needs, and in fact is harmful to the development of a good long-term solution. This belief derives from the following facts: ● The need for a new runway at Sea-Tac airport has been overstated significantly. ● The proposed third runway would have major operational problems which would constrain its effectiveness. ● The proposed third runway would be used only rarely. ● Approval of a third runway would undermine the search for a good long-term solution to regional air transportation capacity needs. The Port of Seattle is proposing to spend a half billion dollars to construct a third dependent runway at Sea-Tac which it claims it will use approximately 15 percent of the time. When the extent of capacity- limiting weather conditions is accurately calculated and the benefits of existing technology are considered, it appears that there is no need for a third runway at Sea-Tac. Moreover, development of a third runway…

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Call to order – Roll Call – Quorum Established – Land Acknowledgement We would like to acknowledge that our Agency operates in four present-day counties, which are the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people, past and present. This acknowledgement does not take the place of authentic relationships with indigenous communities in our jurisdiction and [...]