Plymouth Airport Runway to Expand After Agreement Reached with Neighbors

Plymouth Municipal Airport’s north-south runway will be extended 1,000 feet under the Airport Commission’s 10-year airport layout plan after seven months of negotiations with neighbors in Plymouth and Carver.

The runway will be extended from 3,350 feet to 4,350 feet with an additional 300-foot safety “overrun,” for emergencies. The additional 300 feet will be built below the minimum standards for runways, according to Airport Manager Thomas Maher.

The east-west runway, which is the airport’s main runway, will not be extended, but it will also receive a 300-foot overrun.

An earlier plan called for both runways to be extended to 5,000 feet, but was loudly called down by neighbors in both West Plymouth and Carver, who worried that longer runways would mean larger aircraft and more noise.

The extended north-south runway will allow for a more balanced use of the runways, Maher said.

“Rather than using both runways at the same time as we often do now” the extension will mean that only one runway will be in use.

“Balancing” the runways will also mean less noise, Maher said.

“At the present time, all the larger aircraft are required to use the longer east-west runway, which focuses the noise over the most populated areas of west Plymouth in the east and the most populated areas of Carver in the west,” Maher said.

The east-west runway is currently the busier of the two runways, but extending the north-south runway will mean that larger aircraft will be able to use it.

“(This) will help spread the noise much more fairly and will help keep the noise over the least populated areas of Plymouth and Carver,” Maher said. “We feel very sincerely that this is the most important part of the plan for the airport and we feel this will work for the community and the airport,” Maher said.

Under the agreement made between the commissioners and the Plymouth Airport Advisory Group, the airport cannot grow from its current size or accept larger aircraft than it currently accepts.

The airport layout plan, called the ALP for short, describes what the airport is and what the commissioners anticipate it being in the future. The plan forecasts activity at the airport, how many aircraft and what types to expect. The FAA requires that the plan be updated every 10-15 years. The last time it was updated was 1994, Maher said.

Selectmen Chairman William Hallisey was a member of PAAG, the group that negotiated the plan with the Airport Commissioners. The group consisted of eight Plymouth residents, eight Carver residents, two airport commissioners and two airport users. Hallisey and Carver Selectman Dick Ward served on the advisory group.

Maher, PAAG, and the Airport Commissioners will make the same presentation to Carver Selectmen in the coming weeks.

Town Meeting needs to approve the plan, and Maher said the earliest Town Meeting should see the funding for the design is next spring. The FAA will have to approve the plan and should provide grant money for the design by next year. Construction depends on FAA funding, Maher said.