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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAirports all over the world are sinking
From the ramp tower 120 feet above the runway, it's clear Philadelphia International Airport is surrounded by water. There is wetland, a network of creeks, and just a couple hundred yards away, the tidal Delaware River leading out to the Bay. As with many airports, the original idea was to build on a large tract of land convenient to a city, but far enough away from homes and tall buildings. Often, that meant coastal wetlands and landfill.
Now, such airports are threatened.
A federal report lists Philadelphia International as one of 13 major U.S. airports that have at least one runway within 12 feet of current sea levels. There are many more at risk around the world, and some have already faced flight disruptions or closure from storms and floods.
Climate scientists, city planners, and engineers say that will become more common as sea levels rise, storm surge and intense rain events worsen, and - in some areas - the land slowly sinks. Increasingly, it won't take a major tropical storm to shut down an airport.
More
https://www.npr.org/2018/09/25/651120028/airports-at-waters-edge-battle-rising-sea-levels
********* I guess that important infrastructure bill we were promised has had to take a back seat to all the "more important" stuff that Trump and the GOP deem a higher priority............
hatrack
(59,579 posts).
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)of course, as you say. Only the idiots who voted for him could have imagined he had the interest or capability. And of course Repubs in congress are under orders to transfer our tax dollars to their donors.
Fwiw, though, this is an illustration of why decline won't just continue in a straight line until the national airplane crashes into the ground, or water. If we won't fix our airports when we should, we'll fix them when we have to.
Itm, all those trumpsters in the cockpit ready to grab the wheel make me feel quite safe.
TheBlackAdder
(28,169 posts).
It was the only land available, often getting variances to fill in marshes and wetlands to build the up.
Japan has a man-made island and Boston's airport is mostly manufactured property.
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lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Oops.