Expect Fort Lauderdale airport to be more crowded. Rebuilt runway reopening soon.
The terminals of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport will be seeing a lot more fliers in the coming weeks as the airport re-opens its second runway.
The airport announced Friday night that the north runway will re-open on Oct. 1 after a four-month closure for significant repairs. The reconstruction project costed an estimated $95 million.
Parts of the north runway dated back to 1943 when Fort Lauderdale airport was a naval air station during World War II. The runway itself hasn’t gone through a major overhaul since 2004.
The airport was set to replace the 75-foot center portion of the runway with concrete — this is the area that takes the brunt of the impact from plane landings. The sides of the runway, which extend about 38 feet on either side, were also to be repaved with asphalt and the electrical and signage systems were set to be upgraded.
The announcement on the new opening did not give detail on how much of the projected plans were completed.
During the airport’s runway reconstruction, it was forced to fly all planes in and out of it’s south runway, which was already used by many international carriers and inaugurated in 2014.
The airport estimated the closure would likely mean a million fewer passengers flying out of FLL during the four months, according to the airport’s fiscal year 2019 budget presentation. In theory, the opening would mean those million flyers will be seeing their way back.
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