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More Details on Midway Jet Noise to Be Released This Week

By Casey Cora | July 22, 2014 5:22am
 Airplanes traveling on a new federally approved flight path guides jets from Lake Michigan to Midway's Runway 22L.
Airplanes traveling on a new federally approved flight path guides jets from Lake Michigan to Midway's Runway 22L.
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BRIDGEPORT — As noise complaints spiked around Midway Airport this year, the city is about to release even more data that could send residents into a fever pitch.

The data will be made public at a meeting of the Midway Noise Compatibility Commission at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at The Mayfield banquet room, 6072 S. Archer Ave. in Garfield Ridge.

The agenda for the meeting, which is open to the public, includes the release of the results of the quarterly Airport Noise Management System report, which tracks the number of departing and arriving flights, runway usage, which airlines are frequenting the airspace and what type of jets are flown.

Of concern to residents in Bridgeport, McKinley Park and Brighton Park is the number of flights approaching Midway using Runway 22L.

Flights approaching that airstrip are using a new path that brings jets from Lake Michigan to the airport. The planes are generally supposed to follow Interstate 55, but that puts them in close proximity to neighborhoods where jet noise hasn't historically been a concern.

Residents say the jet noise this year has become too intrusive and too frequent, prompting a groundswell of online activity urging neighbors to log complaints to the city by phone and online.

City data show 140 complaints were made concerning Midway noise in the first quarter of this year, which covers January through March. The number of complaints is more than twice the number from the first quarter of 2013, when 60 were logged.

And the number of complaints from the second quarter of 2014 — when far more Chicagoans were outside and exposed to noise — could be higher. Those numbers are also expected to be released at the meeting.

Ald. James Balcer (11th) has encouraged Bridgeport residents to attend Thursday's meeting to voice their complaints during the public comment portion of the meeting. It's unclear if Balcer will attend.

Here are a few more details on the meeting and the Midway Noise Compatibility Commission, a quasi-governmental body:

• Formed in 1996, the Midway commission is comprised of Southwest Side aldermanic appointees, suburban mayors or representatives sent on their behalf, a representative from the Cook County Board of Commissioners and a deputy commissioner with the city's aviation department.

• The commission is charged with making recommendations to the full City Council on various noise reduction programs. It's essentially set up to represent the voices of residents who live close to the airports.

• Most of the group's recent quarterly meetings haven't lasted more than 50 minutes.

• At the commission's last meeting in April, the group qualified 1,800 more homes for the Residential Sound Insulation Program, which uses a mix of city and federal funds to pay for soundproofing upgrades, generally for homes located in the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the airport. According to the Southwest News Herald, the total number of homes qualified for the program is 10,740.

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