Leigh Fisher Associates was selected by the Federal Aviation Administration to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for five distinct projects to serve separate needs at George Bush Intercontinental Airport/Houston, as follows:

• Extend and widen commuter/general aviation Runway 15R-33L for use by air carrier aircraft.
• Construct new air carrier Runway 8L-26R.
• Expand and enhance the International Airlines Building
• Construct terminal ramp circulation improvements, including a new taxiway bridge and ramp widening. This project also includes the construction of new air cargo facilities to accommodate activity that would be displaced by these projects and to accommodate growth in air cargo activity.
• Construct a consolidated rental car facility.

In addition to preparing the EIS and overall quality control, Leigh Fisher Associates was directly responsible for developing the project purpose and potential alternatives. As part of these assignments, Leigh Fisher Associates developed forecasts of aviation demand, including constrained demand resulting from the failure to construct needed facilities, and the analysis of airfield demand, capacity, and delay. The most important technical issues included the need to justify and mitigate about 100 acres of unavoidable wetlands impacts, and demonstrate that the emissions from the proposed improvements would conform to the State Implementation Plan.

The proposed projects are considered to be essential for the efficient operation of the Continental Airlines connecting hub. Accordingly, rapid completion of the environmental process was extremely important to the project sponsor. To meet the challenge of completing the NEPA process in the shortest possible time, Leigh Fisher Associates conducted regular project review meetings to identify time-critical assignments and ensure an understanding of the requirements and schedules. As a result, the Draft EIS was published less than 11 months after the scoping meeting. Completion of the FEIS is scheduled for early summer.

Client
Federal Aviation Administration/Houston Airport System

Services
-Environmental Planning
-Forecasting and Economics
-Airfield and Airspace Planning