FAA Gives Initial Nod To O'Hare Expansion- Final Expansion Decision To Be Made In September - NBC July 28, 2005 CHICAGO -- The Federal Aviation Administration has approved an environmental impact statement on the expansion project for O'Hare International Airport, city officials said Thursday. Mayor Richard M. Daley said during a news conference at City Hall that the city would be ready to break ground as soon as the project received a record of decision, or final approval, from the FAA. That decision is expected in September. No state or local tax dollars would be used directly for the project, which was estimated to cost $6.6 billion in 2001 dollars, according to Rosemarie Andolino, executive director of the O'Hare Modernization Program. While a news release from the mayor's office stated that the FAA had found the financial costs to be reasonable and the city's plan for financing the improvements adequate, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said that the agency had not yet approved the financing plan. A statement released Thursday by the FAA approved the project's environmental impact statement, Andolino said. Some of the environmental measures that would be taken in the expansion project included soundproofing for nearby offices and homes, low emission fuels used in construction vehicles, and using public roads as little as possible, according to Andolino. In addition, 150 acres of wetlands would be replaced with 400 acres of wetlands throughout the Des Plaines River Watershed, she said. The FAA reviewed 20 different plans on reducing delays at O'Hare before deciding on the modernization project, which was essentially the same plan Daley outlined in 2001, Andolino said. The project would include a reconfiguration of runways and the construction of an additional runway and a new terminal, and Daley claimed that once completed it would save millions of dollars in fuel costs. The FAA has not yet approved the runway layout, according to project attorney Michael Snyderman. The modernization project would generate between 50,000 and 195,000 new jobs, according to Daley. Once the project is complete an additional $18 billion would be added to the already $38 billion in overall economic impact generated yearly by O'Hare now, Daley claimed. When asked how the city was dealing with the prospect of having to move grave sites, so construction could occur over a cemetery, Snyderman said there are federal procedures in place that would be followed. Daley stressed that gravesite relocation is not uncommon, stating that other cities across the United States have done it before. "Yes, there are personal feelings. Yes, you understand that," Daley said. "But under the law, the federal government has done this all over the country. This is not an exception, this is not a variance at all. We understand the personal feelings that anyone would have." When the record of decision is received by the city, negotiations would begin with all next of kin, according to Andolino. "We will treat this in a very sensitive way," she said. While the mayor declined to comment on the need for the FAA to rearrange flight patterns in the sky to reduce congestion, Daley said a modernized O'Hare would help. Daley said all cities with airports need to reconfigure their runways for an east-west approach, and that would greatly reduce delays. "This is the greatest thing for the airline industry," the mayor said of the O'Hare plan. "If city's don't move forward in east-west runways, and cut delays, it is a bad omen for the airline industry." "I think its clear that the FAA and the Department of Transportation understand the significance of this project for building aviation capacity in the Chicago region," U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a news release. U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) said in a news release that the FAA was ignoring the U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General's report that the modernization plan was on "unrealistic financial foundation." But Andolino said that the FAA had addressed concerns brought up by the Inspector General's Office, and the administration ultimately decided that the city's environmental plan was adequate. City News Service contributed to this story.