A plane arrival of the future: The pilot approaches Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport from the west, landing on the runway six stories above ground level, taxiing over the Florida East Coast Railway tracks and all lanes of U.S. 1.

That future is about to become a reality, as the Federal Aviation Administration and Broward County officials broke ground Monday on the new $790 million runway.

It’s the latest chapter in the airport’s expansion that has been 18 years in the making.

“This has been a topic that has been debated more in our chambers over the last decade than any other topic,” said Broward County Mayor John Rodstrom.

The new runway, expected to be operational by September 2014, will stretch 8,000 feet parallel to Griffin Road. But here’s what makes it really interesting: It will also be elevated 60 feet off the ground, in order for trains and trucks to comfortably pass in tunnels underneath.

While it won’t be the first elevated runway in the nation — they already exist in Las Vegas and Seattle, for example — it will be only the second spanning a federal roadway.

At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, a runway crosses over Interstate 285.

“That’s the most similar, the only two of their kind really in the North American continent,” said Dale Stubbs, project manager for Atkins, which is the lead designer on the new runway. “The fact that we’re going over interstates and railways make those two fairly unique.”

The runway will be 150 feet wide — far narrower than the 195-foot wingspan of a 747 Boeing jet, which is the largest plane that will be able to land there.

The new runway will also have a slight slope — 1.3 percent — which will start midway. FAA regulations allow for inclines up to 1.5 percent.

The design includes concrete bridges to span the highway and railroad, while the rest of the runway will be built on dirt. Much of the land surrounding the runway will also be elevated to make room for diagonal taxiways the planes will use to get to and from the airport gate.

According to Greg Meyer, spokesman for the Broward County Aviation Department, the design meets all FAA standards for “safe and efficient airplane arrivals and departures.”

But not everyone is so confident.

“The pilot has to be on his game,” said Christopher Johnston, a pilot with a commercial airline for three decades and a resident of Dania Beach. “I would opt to circle before I land on that runway.”

The FAA said it will work with the airport to install visual and electronic aids to assist pilots in landing and taking off from the runway.

The new runway is needed, say Broward County leaders, to accommodate more air traffic and reduce waiting time for passengers.

It is expected to increase the number of take-offs and landings that can occur at the airport, thereby bolstering the local economy.

“If the airport does not increase its runway capacity, its average annual delay is projected to surge from the current rate of 6 minutes to 26 minutes by 2020,” Meyer said.

Currently, the airport has two parallel runways and a third diagonal runway connecting the two. Once the new runway is built, the diagonal runway will be closed.

“The diagonal runway has several disadvantages as a backup runway due to its shorter length and impact to heavily populated communities to the northwest and southeast of the airport,” Meyer said.