Oakland International Airport Offers Tickets to Area Attractions to San Leandro Residents

Aug. 1, 2001

OAKLAND — In conjunction with its plans to close the main runway for 10 days for repaving starting Aug. 10, Oakland International Airport is making a special effort for eligible San Leandro residents to ease the impact of temporary changes in flight patterns.

The airport will remain open during the repaving, with commercial aircraft landing on existing runways at the North Field. Flight paths will take incoming aircraft over portions of San Leandro.

Planes will depart from an existing taxiway, upgraded for use as a temporary runway, so that commercial aircraft can avoid taking off over residential areas.

Because of the impact of arriving aircraft, the airport is offering free tickets to area attractions to people who live in more than 9,000 homes in San Leandro, just east of the North Field runways. This is in addition to earlier offers of discount airline tickets or temporary housing in health care facilities for certain homebound residents.

"Because it is not feasible to design a temporary runway for incoming planes, we have worked very hard to create innovative programs to ease the impact on our neighbors," said Steve Grossman, director of aviation for the Port of Oakland. "We have designed a combination of programs for our neighbors, while keeping the airport open for the businesses and individuals who depend on it. So far as we know, this is the first time that an airport has offered discount airline tickets or tickets to family attractions to its neighbors."

San Leandro residents who live near the runways will have their choice of tickets to one of 10 area attractions: Oakland Athletics baseball, the Chabot Space & Science Center, Children's Fairyland, Dunsmuir House and Gardens, the Hayward Plunge, Lawrence Hall of Science, Oakland Ice Center, the Oakland Museum of California, the Oakland Zoo in Knowland Park and the USS Hornet Museum. Residents eligible for tickets to family attractions, discount airline tickets and temporary relocation to health care facilities have received detailed instructions on the programs in the mail.

In order to keep its neighbors informed about the project, the airport has sent three mailings to nearby San Leandro residents and two mailings to residents in the Bay Farm Island area of Alameda. It also has held numerous meetings with elected officials and city staff, as well as general community meetings, and placed newspaper advertisements about the construction schedule.

Additional information on the overall project is available on the Internet at https://www.oaklandairport.com/community.html or at 510-577-4692.

The August construction schedule was selected after nearby residents said they would prefer complete closure of the runway for approximately 10 days instead of weekend-only work for several months.

As an incentive to avoid construction delays, the contractor will pay a penalty of $125,000 every 12 hours if the work is not completed on schedule. The contractor also will receive an incentive payment of $125,000 for each 12-hour period that the project is completed ahead of schedule, up to a maximum of $1 million. There is no maximum penalty if the work is not finished on time.

Work is scheduled during August so that incoming air carriers will not fly over schools while classes are in session, and to avoid weather-related construction delays that could lengthen the project.

The low bid on the project was $16,938,383, submitted by Gallagher and Burk, Inc., of Oakland.

Oakland International Airport has two airfields. The main runway, typically used by airlines, is 10,000 feet in length and is located at South Field closest to the passenger terminal. North Field, with three runways ranging in length from 3,366 feet to 6,212 feet, is typically used by corporate jets and smaller general aviation planes. All runways are approved by the FAA for airline use.

The repaving of the main air carrier runway at South Field is designed to last for 15 years and consists of an asphalt concrete overlay of approximately six inches and a grooved surface to provide additional friction. Runway lights also are being replaced.

In 2000, Oakland International Airport served more than 10.6 million passengers and handled approximately 700,000 metric tons of air cargo. Oakland International has more than 190 daily passenger flights on 12 domestic and international carriers. The airport is a revenue division of the Port of Oakland, an independent department of the City of Oakland.