PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles will use advanced laser technology to identify trees and any other obstructions that must be removed from Lincoln Park and other property surrounding William R. Fairchild International Airport.
The obstructions must be removed to comply with Federal Aviation Administration rules for keeping aircraft approach zones.
The airport’s approach zones must be clear so planes can circle to make another approach at the runway.
Airport Manager Jeff Robb said at Monday’s Port commission meeting that URS Corp. of Seattle was hired last year for the obstruction removal project.
But the work couldn’t be done because the trees or other obstructions to be removed hadn’t been adequately identified, he said.
Obstructions must be removed from an area 10,000 feet beyond the end of Runway 826 and 5,000 feet beyond the end of the alternate north-south runway, Robb said.
Accurate survey is critical
Many of the obstructions are on private property, so an accurate survey is critical to minimize effects to property owners, Robb wrote in a memo to Port commissioners.
Standard ground survey methods used last year proved inaccurate and the project was put on hold to evaluate alternative survey methods, the memo said.
So LIDAR — Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging — will be used, which provides the best, most accurate survey data, Robb said.
LIDAR determines the distance to an object by measuring the time between when a pulse of laser light is sent and when it is reflected back by an object.
The technology can collect topographic data for steep slopes and canyons as well as inaccessible areas, such as large mud flats and ocean jetties.
Robb told the city’s parks board last year that the airport has already given up 1,350 feet of the 6,350-foot runway because of trees in the approach zone that cannot be removed.
Two phases of project
Port Planner Susan Bauer said the project’s first phase is surveying and indentifying obstructions, including trees, and the second is project engineering and obstruction removal.
When she conducted the required State Environmental Policy Act review for the first phase, she was careful not to say only trees but any obstructions, Bauer said.
She determined the project’s first phase had no significant environmental impact but the second phase, which is obstruction removal, might, Bauer said.
The project contract with URS Corp. totals $87,596, including $32,307 for this year’s project and $55,289 for work performed in 2005.
The project is 95 percent federally funded, Bauer said. The Port’s 5 percent match of $4,379 will be funded with passenger facility charges, she said.
