si Ss
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RIFTY IN PRICE
BUT
Pie In The Sky?
'For three decades, bureaucracy and red tape have
dogged attempts to move Sde Dov Airport. Can new
plans succeed?
NOT IN FEATURES
NICKY BLACKBURN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
S
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hiri Meyer looked out of the
window of her expensive
apartment in Tel Aviv's
Azorei Hen neighborhood
as the noise of an airplane filled
the room, halting conversation
temporarily.
"It's so busy tonight," she sighed
as the airplane finally landed on
the runway at Sde Dov Airport
and the noise died down. "They
said they were going to move it,
but nothing ever seems to hap-
pen."
Ms. Meyer is right. For 32 years
there have been plans to move the
military and civilian airport from
its position sandwiched between
the power station and Tel Baruch
in the north of Tel Aviv to a new
man-made site off the coast.
Some claim Sde Dov is dan-
gerous, others cite pollution prob-
lems and lack of space. Some are
just looking greedily at the 500
acres of land it sits on. Over the
years, however, nothing has been
done. Instead, plan after plan has
fallen victim to bureaucracy,
lethargy and sheer bad luck.
Moving an airport to an off-
shore island — man-made or nat-
ural — is nothing new. There are
170 airports like this around the
world, from Chicago to Japan and
Rio De Janeiro, and the advan-
tages are obvious. Not only are
these airports safer because
planes land and take-off over wa-
ter, but noise pollution is reduced
enormously and there are no
night-time noise restrictions
which means the airport can op-
erate 24-hours-a-day.
"In most countries, it takes an
average of 25 years to plan and
build an airport. In Israel, it's al-
ready taken three decades and we
haven't even reached the planning
stage," complains Hugo Marom,
founder and CEO of Airport En-
gineering Hugo Mamm Ltd., who
was first commissioned to design
the Sde Dov airport in 1965. To-
day he has a new $750 million de-
sign which, he says, with
government support could go out
for bids in 12-18 months.
The government set up an in-
ter ministerial committee in
March to look into feasibility.
Promising though this might
sound, there are already signs
that feet are still being dragged.
Sde Dov was never meant to be
a permanent airport. Built on land
expropriated by the British au-
thorities during World War II, it
was always assumed that it would
be handed back to residents.
That did not happen, and it was
only in 1965 that the Israeli gov-
ernment first began to explore
moving the airport. Initially, the
aim was to find a cheaper location
somewhere near Tel Aviv. Nine-
teen sites were examined, but the
only viable option was to build on
land reclaimed from the sea.
The first design, by Mr. Marom,
fell through. Undaunted, he car-
ried on campaigning for the move
and in the early 1970s was again
commissioned to draw up anoth-
er design for an offshore airport.
In 1973, the Transport Ministry
approved Mr. Marom's plan to
build a municipal, domestic and
regional airport adjoining the
mainland. The project, for a sin-
gle offshore runway, went out for
international bids, but when the
Yom Kippur War broke out.
It took another 10 years for the
airport to be put back on the agen-
da. This time, Marom designed
a plan for moving the airport to a
rocky area north of Tel Baruch in
order to free up the beach. Though
Mr. Marom brought with him pri-
vate investors interested in de-
veloping the airport, this plan and
another in the early 1990s was re-
jected.
This year, Transport Minister
Yitzhak Levy proposed moving
the airport to an island. The idea
is part of a wider plan by Nation-
al Infrastructure Minister Ariel
Sharon to construct a string of is-
lands opposite Israel's major
coastal cities. The government
committee is expected to produce
an interim report in six months.
"We want to move Sde Dov to
the sea in the long run, but need
to examine costs and feasibility. I
don't know many details at pre-
sent," says Nahoum Langental,
head of the committee and direc-
tor-general of the Transport Min-
istry.
Mr. Marom's latest, $750 mil-
lion plan proposes an island air-
port a half-mile off the coast
between Tel Baruch and Herzylia
Marina in 45 feet of water. Cov-
ering either 500 to 750 acres of
land, depending on whether the
terminal is onshore or offshore,
the airport would have a main
runway and taxiways, one of
which would serve as an emer-
gency runway.
With these facilities, the airport
could service up to 40 million pas-
sengers per year, and up to 600-
700 takeoffs and landings a day.
There will also be facilities for
small aircraft, military aircraft
and helicopters. Bridges or tun-
nels would most probably be used