Runway fever in SeaTac, O'Hare, Dulles

SeaTac says it will open in November, on the same day as a new runway at O'Hare and another at Washington's Dulles, but the SeaTac effort stands to do more for the national airspace system since it will effectively double the airport's bad weather capacity. And Seattle has bad weather about 44% of the time, according to the Port of Seattle, the airport's operator. The two existing runways are sepa rated by only 800 feet, and that is too close to allow simultaneous operations in instrument conditions. As you can see from the aerial shot (preceeding this one) from SeaTac, the third runway is some distance from the first, about 2,500 feet.
Of course, the other two runways are achievements, and the 7,500-foot O'Hare runway designed for landings in bad weather is the most visible evidence of real progress in the $6 billion O'Hare Modernization Program. It is accompanied by an extension to an existing runway (in green in the photo). The O'Hare program has faced years of well-organized, well-funded suburban opposition. The new Dulles runway is as much an insurance policy for future growth as anything else.