‘Grave’ issue halts $15 billion O’Hare expansion
The long-awaited approval of a $15 billion expansion of O’Hare International Airport to ease some of the US’s worst flight delays didn’t last long.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the expansion but hours later an appeals court ruled it could not go ahead.
“O’Hare is now cleared for take-off,” said FAA administrator Marion Blakely, a prediction that turned out to be premature.
The FAA’s approval came after an environmental impact and other studies cleared the way for it.
But the U. S. Court of Appeals in Washington granted a stay of the project to consider an emergency request filed by opponents. Their contention, among others, was that the expansion would desecrate a historic cemetery.
Said Derek Gaubatz, director of litigation for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty:
“We think the federal courts will find this plan to be dead on arrival.”
The O’Hare expansion project called for new and reconfigured runways, another terminal and more parking for planes.
Critics have fought the project for years because it requires the razing of nearly 500 homes and the relocating of nearly 200 businesses and the cemetery in the Chicago suburbs of Bensenville, Des Plaines and Elk Grove Village, said CNN.com.
City of Chicago officials, who learned of the court ruling just hours after a celebration for the groundbreaking, said in a statement:
“We are confident that the O’Hare Modernization Program will withstand any and all judicial challenges and we will implement the program as planned.”
The court’s action temporarily halts the project until it can decide what to do next. There was no timeline on future court rulings.
Report by David Wilkening
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