Marc Stiles
Seattle Times South Bureau
SEATAC – The 1998 third-runway dirt haul, scheduled to begin early next month, will be more than twice the size of last year’s.
And the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport project is just getting started. Airport officials say haul sizes will continue to increase in the coming years and that the operation could last through 2002. That’s one year longer than they had estimated.
Still, they maintain that the runway will open in November 2004.
So far, only 2 percent of the 18 million cubic yards of dirt for Sea-Tac’s $1.7 billion expansion have been brought to the airport. Seventeen million cubic yards will be used to create a foundation for the $587 million, 8,500-foot third runway that airport officials are building to increase capacity and decrease bad-weather flight delays.
Last year, double-sized dump trucks made 20,000 trips from September through November to bring in the first 370,000 cubic yards of fill.
The airport’s goal in 1998 is 830,000 cubic yards, which will be trucked in from May through October. That equals 46,000 truckloads.
Airport officials had anticipated a 1 million-cubic-yard haul for 1998, but a bidding snafu caused a month’s delay and forced them to scale back. City Transfer of Kent won the contract with a low bid of $8.6 million.
To alleviate effects on traffic, airport officials are stretching the haul over six months. Plus, trucks will enter the airfield from the north as well as the south. Last year, only the south entrance was used.
Fluffed-up dirt
Runway opponents, who are suing to block its construction, question the airport officials’ dirt estimates. They say the numbers constantly fluctuate.
This reveals that the airport “doesn’t know what it’s doing,” said Peter Kirsch, an Airport Communities Coalition lawyer.
Coalition members are Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Normandy Park, Tukwila and the Highline School District.
Airport spokesman Dan Leach said the numbers have not changed since the final study of Sea-Tac expansion was released last year. It states that a total of 26 million cubic yards are needed, but that’s misleading, Leach said.
Haulers start with compacted dirt. But when it’s excavated, “it fluffs up,” he explained. That leads to the 26-million-cubic-yard figure.
Further confounding matters is that Port of Seattle officials, who operate the airport, say two expansion projects – building the South Aviation Support Area and extending the eastern runway – won’t be done for at least 10 years. Yet the projects, which require a total of 5 million cubic yards of fill, are listed in the Port’s final expansion study.
When those 5 million cubic yards are subtracted, airport officials say, they will need 18 million cubic yards of compacted dirt, or 21 million cubic yards of “fluffed-up” fill.
Imported dirt
After 1998, third-runway project manager Michael Cheyne expects 13 million cubic yards of dirt will be brought to the airport from outlying areas. Port officials still are studying where it will come from and how it will get to Sea-Tac. Options include barges, conveyer belts, trucks and a combination of these methods.
The remainder of the dirt will come from Port property on or near Sea-Tac.
Three million cubic yards of runway dirt will be scraped westward from the existing airfield. This will create a slight slope between the existing runways and the new one.
Airport officials say there are up to 12 million cubic yards of dirt available on Port property near Sea-Tac. But mining it would require permission from two municipalities, SeaTac and Des Moines, and Des Moines adamantly opposes the runway.
For now, airport officials are preparing for the 1998 haul.
Trucks using the north entrance will travel from the region’s freeways to Highway 518 before exiting onto the airport’s north access road. From there, they’ll turn onto Air Cargo Road and enter the north side of the airfield at South 154th Street.
Trucks again will use the Starling Road entrance on the south end of the airfield. From area freeways, trucks will turn onto Highway 518, then onto Highway 509 and South 188th Street to Starling Road.
Runway fill will be brought from a Sumner-area pit, and from construction sites in the region, Cheyne said.
The north entrance will be open from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays during the school year and from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the summer. Trucks will use the south entrance from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. during the school year and from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the summer.
On weekends, trucks will use both entrances from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Port has established a hotline for complaints about the dirt haul. The number is 1-800-408-9886.
Marc Stiles’ phone message number is 253-946-3976.