Airport chief clarifies expansion plans

WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) - It's been talked about for years, expanding the runway at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick.

Now the Rhode Island Airport Corporation says just 10 homes would have to be acquired to build the runway extension.

RIAC President and CEO Kevin Dillon made the point after a local newspaper reported a Federal Aviation Administration environmental study identified 406 residential parcels as subject to acquisition because of the extension proposal.

Should the runway be extended, the number of parcels affected by higher levels of aircraft noise would increase by 145, making them eligible for voluntary acquisition.

The total is further increased by those properties that would need to be acquired for both the extension and the safety improvements to the shorter runway.

The study that compares the projected impacts of three extended runway options, two to the north and the 8,700 foot proposal backed by RIAC to the south, identifies 74 parcels as being in the runway protection zone if the southerly option was chosen.

This figure differs slightly from Dillon’s numbers that have 64 parcels and a total of 59 homes in the zone.

Dillon says that RIAC doesn’t need those homes to build the extension, yet because of increased noise those property owners would be eligible for buyouts on a voluntary basis.