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Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport closed one runway Tuesday to exchange {the electrical} system and set up new power environment friendly lighting. The closure is anticipated to final for six weeks.
Jeff Lea, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Airports Commission and MSP Airport, mentioned the shut down for Runway 17-35 isn’t anticipated to impression journey from the airport.
“I think for those that are in and around the airport, they might see a slight change and flight patterns, and those that drive on Highway 77, there will be no activity for the next six weeks,” Lea mentioned. “But it’s all because of a project to upgrade and modernize the lighting systems on that runway and the associated taxiways.”
The airport runs with 4 runways and 19 taxiways, and never all of them are in use at any given time. That offers the airport FAA visitors management sufficient flexibility to direct planes to different runways and cut back the impression on vacationers.
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“It might have a slight change in air traffic patterns because certainly when you have a runway that’s not in use, planes will not be departing or taking off,” Lea mentioned. “But that’s kind of a normal puzzle that the FAA does in routing air traffic in and out of the airport.”
Crews will set up 436 runway lights and 617 taxiway lights, in addition to convert fixtures to alter the outdated halogen fixtures to LED lighting.
That will assist enhance power effectivity, for the reason that new lighting will cut back amperage from 20 to six.6, and the runway lights energy utilization will change from 120 watts to 50 watts, in addition to taxiway lights reducing from 45 watts to fifteen watts, all with out dropping brightness.
The new LED fixtures have a life expectancy that’s about 25 occasions longer than the older halogen lights.
It’s additionally the ultimate stage of a multi-year plan to exchange the lighting for all 4 runways. The first stage was completed in 2019 to exchange taxiway lighting and signage with LEDs for Runway 4-22 after which accomplished the swap on the opposite two runways: 12L-30R was completed in 2024 and 12R-30L in 2025.
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