If you’re a Newburgh salamander, you gotta love what’s been done for you recently at Stewart International Airport. Twelve substantially-sized, salamander-scaled tunnels were recently built beneath International Boulevard, the new and formerly unnamed “east-west access road” that along with the recently completed re-imagining of Drury Lane into Route 747 (get it?) provides more convenient access to Stewart from I-84.
New to the Mid-Hudson neighborhood, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA) is trying earnestly to project the image of an agency powerful enough to spend huge amounts of money and yet sensitive enough to care about the needs of the least of God’s creatures. PA recently revised its capital budget to include the spending of a half-billion dollars at Stewart through the year 2016. The near-term enhancements, the PA states in the explanation of this budget change, “will dramatically boost the airport’s capacity and level of service.”
The salamanders now can have safe access to their habitat on both sides of the highway. Specially designed six-inch cement curbs were built to direct them away from the road and toward the tunnels. The curbs feature a stop at either end to keep the salamanders from wandering off in the wrong direction and ending up lost or flattened.
Further, 12 seasonal ponds called “vernal pools” were constructed for the comfort of the salamanders. Since the critters prefer to lay eggs in such places under leaf litter, leaves were stockpiled during construction to be laid in the pools, which are about 30 feet wide and look like soft, wet spots in the forest.
Larger tunnels were also built for the convenience of deer and local drivers. Thirteen acres of wetland was created in former farmland to compensate for the wetlands displaced for the road.
PA has previous expertise in the tunnel game. Its Holland Tunnel under the East River is budgeted to generate $87.5 million in gross operating revenues this year, and its Lincoln Tunnel $113.1 million. With projected capital expenses in the next decade of $30 billion, PA could accommodate a lot of salamanders if it so wished.
The $55 million connection to Stewart, financed with state and federal highway funds, now takes travelers to the growing airport off of I-84 at Exit 5, down Route 747 to International Boulevard, which empties into a new parking lot at the airport. The last leg was constructed through wooded land, which was determined during the process to be a home for Indiana bats (they migrate here), purple milkweed (don’t eat the purple stuff), and salamanders, among other fauna and flora.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in a cold drizzle on Nov. 20 to officially open International Boulevard. Within 45 minutes the stretch of asphalt went from being a barricaded road with a stage for politicians complete with tent, catering, and public-address system to a busy thoroughfare nearly impossible to cross on foot due to the constant traffic.
Among the dignitaries on hand was state Sen. Bill Larkin, who heaped praise both on the design and on the completion of the road prior to the holiday travel season.
Air traffic in the New York metropolitan area continues to increase at a torrid pace. Late last week, the PA Web site reported that 108.5 million paying passengers had used the three big New York airports in the year ending Sept. 30, as compared with 102.6 million in the same period the previous year. The length of airport delays has been unprecedented, and the federal FAA has been using a 125 million figure for total capacity.
“September passenger traffic grew 6.2 percent,” PA stated, “led by 8.2 percent international (and) 5.2 percent domestic growth. Passenger flights grew in line with passengers.”
PA said it will spend $20 million at Stewart in the next year, but it hasn’t said what the remaining $480 million will be specifically spent on by 2016.
“The overall capital needs for the remaining period of the capital plan are still under review,” it said, “but are expected to be substantial.” The immediate improvements will include access roads, an increase in parking capacity, aeronautical pavement rehabilitation, and electrical upgrades.
If the PA planners are to be believed, bricks-and-mortar needs seem straightforward. On the horizon for the 2008-2016 period are improved runways and a better terminal.
The expansion of one set of runways currently too short for commercial aviation is a priority. With two acceptable runways, PA said, the airport could handle 7 million passengers a year (some 900,000 passengers are projected for this year). The taxiways for airplanes also must be developed to accommodate more operations. Finally, Commissary Hill must be removed.
PA sees terminal development as the other big need if Stewart is to expand. With seven gates, Stewart can handle only 1.5 million passengers a year. And baggage-room capacity restricts the airport to handling only one flight at a time.
No reference is made in the latest revisions of the PA capital plan to the financial requirements of connecting the airport by rail to the Port Jervis line at Highland Mills. The PA is presently seeking a consultant to shepherd environmental review and engineering work for that project.
The PA maintains that Stewart is intended only as a regional facility with the capacity to serve as a metropolitan reliever airport on exceptional occasions. It is possible that PA is willing to spend $500 million with only that innocent intention in mind. But it’s becoming increasingly evident that this is not the only option on the table.