A runway closed for construction at Newark Liberty International Airport will reopen on Monday, New Jersey officials announced, 13 days ahead of schedule.
The new deadline was made public Friday by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport.
The temporary reduction in available runways from three to two for the past two months has strained operations at Newark, which is also dealing with air traffic control outages and a shortage of air traffic controllers. The facility has been running on a reduced schedule since late April, when the first outage occurred.
Port Authority officials said they have brought in additional crews and expanded shifts to keep rehabilitation work on the runway going 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so it can be reopened to air traffic as soon as possible.
“I commend the crews who have worked tirelessly to get this critical project done ahead of schedule,” Murphy said. “I’m grateful for New Jersey’s partnership with the Port Authority and the FAA as we work to return to full capacity at Newark Airport.”
Even after Monday, though, the runway project will not be finished. State officials said the runway will need to be closed on weeknights through the end of the year, and on weekends from September to December, as rehabilitation continues.
The Path Forward
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has made ATC infrastructure a major focus largely due to the situation at Newark, also praised the Port Authority and called the planned reopening a “key milestone” on the path to reducing congestion at the airport.
“With the runway completed, we’ll continue our work to harden the telecoms infrastructure and improve the staffing pipeline for the airspace,” he said.
The 11,000-foot-long runway, 4L-22R, was shut down in March for milling and paving, which is normally carried out every 10 years. Work crews have also upgraded the site’s lighting, installed new underground electrical infrastructure, and improved drainage systems.
The Port Authority originally planned to finish the project on June 15, but the wave of flight delays and cancelations brought on by the ATC failures increased pressure to speed up construction.
Duffy announced earlier this week that Verizon has installed a new fiber-optic cable between New York and Philadelphia to replace the aging line that triggered Newark’s ATC outages. It should be connected and ready to use by July, the secretary said.
