CHICAGO: ORD & MDW discussion

[emathias]

Originally Posted by jpIllInoIs

American decision to increase OHare flights by 57 comes at the expense of St.louis and Raliegh. StL will lose 46 daily AMR flights and be left with 36 daily AMR flights. WOW! That is bad news for other midwest cities airport ambitions. Cincinnatti shared the same type of demotion, losing more than 50% of its NW/Delta flight after the merger. And Detroit and Memphis got clipped. Only Minneapolis survived that merger without getting big reductions.

Seems to be the type of thing that supports predictions by some of a consolidation of power to bigger, more globally connected cities.

[jpIllInoIs]

^Also underlines the need and purpose of MWHSR with the Chicago Hub.

[202_Cyclist]

Nomarandlee---

The two destinations will be Vancouver and Calgary (on American Eagle). This is from American's website:

"The Company will add 57 daily flights at O'Hare International Airport for a total of 487 daily departures. Customers will have access to 12 new domestic destinations and three new international destinations.
American has reaffirmed its commitment to Chicago as its primary Asia gateway and will start new service to Beijing, China in Spring 2010. Other new destinations will include mainline service to Honolulu; Anchorage, Alaska; and Vancouver, British Columbia. Eagle will offer new service to Calgary, Alberta; Allentown, Pa.; Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Pa.; Charleston, W.Va.; Dayton, Ohio; Fargo, N.D.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Lexington, Ky.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Rapid City,S.D.
In addition, another service enhancement at O'Hare will occur as Eagle deploys most of its 25 CRJ700 aircraft, which will be reconfigured to offer a First Class cabin, in the Chicago market."

[denizen467]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

American has reaffirmed its commitment to Chicago as its primary Asia gateway and will start new service to Beijing, China in Spring 2010. Other new destinations will include mainline service to Honolulu; Anchorage, Alaska; and Vancouver, British Columbia. Eagle will offer new service to Calgary, Alberta; Allentown, Pa.; Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Pa.; Charleston, W.Va.; Dayton, Ohio; Fargo, N.D.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Lexington, Ky.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Rapid City,S.D.

This is fabulous for Chicago and ORD. Despite the continuing growth of the South, ORD rather than DFW (or other cities) will be primary. Also, although I know AA is more focused on trans-Atlantic than trans-Pacific routes, it still seems significant that the world's #2 volume carrier has chosen not to use a west coast hub, but rather ORD, as their primary Asian gateway.

The incredible range of options -- departures at various times throughout the day as well as resulting price competition -- available to business travelers heading to Asia will cement Chicago's advantages as a city for continental/global HQs.

[harryc]

Snapped these 2 months ago, just had time to post process and winnow out while wading in the Jury pool today.



The new tower








Shops along Irving - first time this really struck home.


A holdout


A few houses








More than you can shake a mouse at Post Apocalypse Bensionville

[trvlr70]

It's rather beautiful the way nature reclaims land so quickly.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ Agreed, its amazing that humans can hold back nature's tide like we do...

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by trvlr70

It's rather beautiful the way nature reclaims land so quickly.

if you've never read it, theres a great book called The World Without Us, which explores what would happen to the earth if humans were to simply disappear. Pretty fascinating.

[Bootstrap Bill]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

if you've never read it, theres a great book called The World Without Us, which explores what would happen to the earth if humans were to simply disappear. Pretty fascinating.

There was a show on (I think) the Discovery channel about this.

The city should allow them to set up cameras. This would be a great opportunity to see it in action.

[Haworthia]

Originally Posted by Bootstrap Bill

There was a show on (I think) the Discovery channel about this.

The city should allow them to set up cameras. This would be a great opportunity to see it in action.

One episode of that show was actually about Chicago after people.

I believe there was nothing in that episode about O'Hare airport meaning this post is solidly off topic.

On a side note, this set of pictures is starting to make the rounds:
http://chicagoist.com/2009/09/23/in_...bensenvill.php

The suburb of Bensenville, long embroiled in a fight against O'Hare's expansion, recently relented, accepting the fate of hundreds of houses and other sites, such as St. John's United Church of Christ cemetery. And now as we await the demolition of these locations, one Chicagoist reader - Paul Petrowsky - made it over there to capture some of the scenes in this new ghost town. But if you get the urge to do the same, be careful.

[spyguy]

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2...or-runway.html

Bensenville reaches deal on razing homes for runway
October 28, 2009 11:45 AM

Bensenville officials have reached a tentative agreement with Chicago that could lead to the demolition of more than 600 buildings in the path of a new O'Hare International Airport runway.

Mary Dickson, a village attorney, told DuPage County Judge Kenneth Popejoy today that the village board met in executive session Tuesday and approved a settlement with Chicago that could be finalized within the next week.

[emathias]

I wonder if either of the cities have considered letting house salvagers come in and dismantle the houses instead of just bulldozing them.

All the recycling would certainly give Daley something green to crow about, while attracting salvagers from around the region. Even if there wasn't time to do it for all of them, if they just did the ones with the best material for reuse, it would be a nice guesture.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by emathias

I wonder if either of the cities have considered letting house salvagers come in and dismantle the houses instead of just bulldozing them.

All the recycling would certainly give Daley something green to crow about, while attracting salvagers from around the region. Even if there wasn't time to do it for all of them, if they just did the ones with the best material for reuse, it would be a nice guesture.

I'm not sure what there is to salvage. They're not particularly historic, so there aren't any valuable decorative elements. The raw building materials MAY be re-usable, but chances are that the cladding materials won't appeal to many buyers today, and they won't be as energy-efficient as modern products. The wood framing is probably the only thing with salvage value, but it's not really that valuable either. A cool gesture would be to pulverize and store the concrete and asphalt from the demolitions to use in the sub-grade of the taxiways and service roads, and maybe even the runways if that wouldn't compromise the pavement safety (runways are probably the most carefully-engineered pavement on earth).

I'm involved with a salvage non-profit down here in New Orleans, which raises money through the sale of vintage wood framing (often cypress) to furniture or flooring manufacturers, who pay top dollar for high-quality wood that can't really be harvested anymore. Decorative elements are collected sometimes, too, but I believe they are resold to business who deal in such items.

[Attrill]

Any copper pipes would certainly be worth grabbing. Hmmm......

[ardecila]

I believe you have been beaten to the punch on that one...

[nomarandlee]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhal...hare04.article

$3.7 mil. to study O'Hare terminal airlines don't want

November 4, 2009

A perennial consultant at O'Hare Airport has been awarded a $3.7 million contract to plan for a project major airlines are refusing to fund and consider "ill-conceived": a new western terminal.

Landrum & Brown has dominated the O'Hare planning landscape for decades, raking in nearly $80 million worth of no-bid business during Mayor Daley's 20-year administration. Now the Ohio company will plan for a range of possibilities for the new western terminal that nobody but the city seems to want.

Funding for the study was secured in February, when the Federal Aviation Administration approved the city's application to use $182 million in future passenger ticket tax revenue to design Phase 2 of the O'Hare Modernization Project. "The Western Terminal Planning Study is an important and necessary tool for us to coordinate with the state to provide regional and local roadways for western access to O'Hare, including the future Elgin-O'Hare Expressway and O'Hare bypass," said Aviation Department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez.

Fran Spielman

..

[jpIllInoIs]

^ That headline is bs and the article is useless.. the writer quotes an unnamed airline source referring to the western access as "ill conceived".

The western access development has been planned for more than 20 years. Since when do the airlines not want the Western terminal, western access, Elgin-O'Hare Expressway and the western tri-state bypass? I do not recall any dissension from the airlines over the western access. Maybe Viva will know?

They may not want to pay for anymore development right now-in this economic climate. But when demand picks up again the industry will start complaining about O'Hare limitations. The city and Aviation dept and FAA have to plan and prepare now.

From what Ive seen on the Elgin-Ohare website, they have determined the preferred route of the E-O extension and 294 bypass. This is one of the reasons that Elk Grove Village finally gave up the fight - knowing that a bypass was not going to be put down Rte.83. (It will be on York Road instead.) http://elginohare-westbypass.org/Des...aspx?tabid=244

Anyway this kind of, half the story, non-reporting from the traditional media really gets me riled.

[ChicagoChicago]

^^^
Realistically, for the airlines to even be around once passenger traffic picks up, they're going to need to adopt the rest of the world's attitude toward airline travel. Fewer flights, bigger planes. That will reduce the need for gates and runways, while increasing terminal traffic. At some point the US airlines have to realize that cost is more of a consideration than flight frequency. If a person or company can save money by flying, they will make it convenient for their schedule.

They need to be planning for sustained high fuel prices.

[nomarandlee]

I think there are a number of negatives to building a western terminal as opposed to building newer terminals on the east side where the World Gateway Expansion was supposed to go. That is to not to say there aren't positives of a western terminal but to me it seems like a western terminals biggest selling point has been for an Elgin-O'Hare expressway to lead into and to get western suburbs on board who want more convenience

The connectivity and internal transport on the airport grounds though I would think would be much more convoluted and expensive then if there was new eastern terminals. Expanding the Blue Line and/or ATS seems like an expensive proposition to me that would be more lenghty for travlers to connect to/from the airport compared to new eastern terminals.

The airlines (UA and AA) have been very lukewarm to gate expansion for a number of years (even going back to the World Gateway Project days if I recall correctly). Part of that could be argued is they don't want the increased competition but I think a fair argument could be made they don't want to have to pass along higher fees that expansion would bring.

[jpIllInoIs]

If the argument is that the airlines do not want to duplicate facilities then I can understand it. But the Western Access is not just for passenger convenience. The W/A along with the completion of the E-O and the bypass will facilitate the freight cargo that moves thru O'Hare. Places like Carol Stream and Woodridge, Bolingbrook and Elk Grove are meccas for freight forwarding, logistics and supply chain companies. This is a booming business in good times and a steady business in a downturn. Right now Chicago is a nationwide leader in the industry. More and more firms are locating in and around Chicago's Ohare and sw suburbs. The Western Access is needed to serve these comapnies and to keep Chicago and OHare more competitive in the industry.