Airport Noise Study May Set New Route 

Runway in Hanover a sore spot to residents in bordering towns

October 30, 2002
By Darran A. Simon, Daily Record 
Daily Record


FLORHAM PARK -- A Morristown Municipal Airport study that could lead to reduced noise from planes taking off on its busiest and longest runway will be detailed in a public meeting tonight. 

The airport's 6,000-foot-long Runway 23 --which bears the brunt of corporate jet traffic -- is the source of three-quarters of complaints from area residents, including those on Danforth Road in Madison, according to airport Director Bill Barkhauer.

The airport is actually in Hanover but is owned by Morristown.

The study's first phase could result in a change in the route of departing planes, which was established in the 1970s. The runway is one of four at the airport.

Noise from low-flying planes departing from the increasingly active airport has concerned area residents for years in several neighboring municipalities.

Last year, the airport recorded 225,000 takeoffs and landings. After Sept. 11, traffic at the airport increased because planes were transferred there from other area airports.

Richard Marsh, an eight-year resident of Rosemont Avenue in Madison, plans to be at tonight's workshop.

Marsh, who lives two miles from the airport, said planes seem to turn east too soon and at too low an altitude off the runway.

"Summer evenings takeoffs can seem like one a minute," he said. "All they have to do is go another mile south, and they wouldn't bother anyone."

Members of the Inter Municipal Airport Committee, officials from Hanover, East Hanover, Morris Township, Madison, Florham Park and Morris Plains, applaud the initiative for the Runway 23 study but see a need for more.

IMAC officials, who met Tuesday morning, advocate a larger, more expensive Part 150 study, which would examine issues such as takeoffs, landings and noise impacts. Officials will present their case on Dec. 11 before the Morris County freeholders.

"We think a more intensive study is necessary," said Morris County Freeholder Frank Dreutzler, who also serves as mayor of Morris Plains.

The $30,000 first phase is expected to be completed by Jan. 1. Results will determine if a change is both environmentally possible and would reduce noise, according to Barkhauer. But what that route might be hasn't been determined.

A second phase is contingent on the success of the first. Barkhauer did not have details, cost or length of that phase.

A Binghamton, N.Y., consulting firm will work with the Federal Aviation Administration throughout the study, which entails community input and the use of computer-generated noise models.

The FAA also must determine whether a change in the planes' route after takeoff would reduce noise and be feasible from an air traffic standpoint.

Barkhauer said that the goal is to reduce noise by shifting flight paths over nonresidential areas. However, airport officials said they do not want to move the noise from one neighborhood to another. If the study results are not positive, the flight patterns would remain as is, according to Barkhauer.

"We are optimistic that the phase one analysis will show that this change would have noise benefits," he said.

But IMAC and airport officials disagree on the pressing need for the larger study.

The broad Part 150 could take more than three years and cost several hundred thousand dollars, Barkhauer said.

He said the Federal Aviation Administration recommended the current study as the best approach to solve the issue.

"We wanted to help these neighbors out as soon as possible," he said.

Officials from the airport, consulting firm and FAA will be at tonight's workshop. A formal presentation is not planned.

The workshop is from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Hamilton Room of the Dolce Hamilton Park Conference Hotel, 175 Park Ave., Florham Park.


Darran A. Simon can be reached at dsimon1@gannett.c