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Logan airfield construction projects to resume Monday

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 25, 2009 02:04 PM

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Logan International Airport officials announced today that airfield construction projects will resume Monday, saying they have taken steps to prevent close calls involving construction vehicles and planes like the one last week involving a US Airways jet on takeoff.

Airport officials said 18 licensed and trained drivers will escort construction vehicles while they're on the airfield. No other contractors will be allowed to drive on the airfield unless they're escorted.

The escort drivers will be retrained and recertified before Monday. They will check whether runways are in use when they start their shifts and monitor announcements of any changes, checking in to acknowledge they're aware of the changes, airport officials said in a statement.

The "complete focus" of the drivers will be on whether they are traveling through authorized areas of the airfield, said Phil Orlandella, a spokesman for the airport, which is run by the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Officials also said that if construction ever requires vehicles to cross an active runway, Massport personnel will oversee the crossing and communicate with air traffic control before the crossing.

Massport suspended airfield construction and conducted a top-to-bottom review of airfield movement policies and procedures after the incident last Thursday in which a construction vehicle crossed a Logan runway as a US Airways Airbus A320 took off. The driver told investigators that he had not been briefed that the runway was open, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report last week.

Orlandella said there are at least two major construction projects on the field. One of them is the construction of Taxiway M, which is a little more than half-finished. The driver in last week's incident was driving down Taxiway M when he crossed Runway 15R as the Airbus rolled toward takeoff.