Wheeling backs costly airport safety measure

Despite one trustee calling it “a huge price,” the Wheeling village board backed a plan Tuesday to install a $12 million safety system at the Chicago Executive Airport.

Before the vote, Trustee Ray Lang asked Airport Manager Dennis Rouleau if there was “anything more affordable” available.

“What will this do for the airport?” Lang asked. “Will more companies use the airport because the runways will be safer?”

Rouleau said the runways would indeed be safer.

“When we bought the airport 25 years ago, we've been working on making it safer, and this is the last thing we can do,” said Rouleau, pointing out that the runways have been widened, roads have been moved and taxiways installed,

Wheeling won't have to contribute any money to the project, and neither will Prospect Heights, which also has ownership of the airport. Federal funds would pay for 95 percent of the project's cost, and state funds would cover another 2.5 percent. Chicago Executive Airport would contribute $300,000 from its reserve accounts, Rouleau said.

The system will last 20 years and is used at O'Hare International and Midway airports. It consists of crushable concrete and will work year-round.

Planes have overrun runways at Chicago Executive Airport three times in the past, the latest on Monday night. The lone pilot was not hurt. While black ice was a problem at the time of Monday night's incident, it was under investigation.

The two other incidents occurred in 2006 and 1979. In 2006, an airplane was seriously damaged after it ran into a grassy area. In 1979, an airplane overshot a runway, crossed Palatine Road and crashed into a building that has since been demolished. No one was hurt in either accident, Rouleau said.

Chicago Executive Airport has three runways, but the system would be used only on the busiest one.

Rouleau will find out in June or July if his airport received the federal funds. If it does, work will begin later this summer and will be done in two phases.