The city of New Haven, Connecticut, is pushing a significant expansion plan for the Tweed-New Haven Airport after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) delivered a Finding of No Significant Impact and Record of Decision. While the finding legitimizes the project, the airport and its partners are still in the early stages of planning and development.
The city and its partners – including the town of East Haven, the Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority (TNHAA) and private sector collaborators – will move forward with the plan to build a new East Terminal and expand a runway at the airport. While more information will be released later, published details indicate that the terminal may cover 84,000 square feet, and the runway may be expanded by 1,035 feet.
After receiving the federal green light, the parties executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and a legislative proposal establishing milestones for continual assessment of the proposed project.
Both releases are intended to help support future development by addressing public safety, infrastructure and community impacts. The MOU lays out options for handling traffic, parking and environmental concerns. The same document aligns information, discussions, technical review and coordination between all parties.
The legislative proposal forms an outline for the project’s core elements, including proposed state funding, infrastructure investment and governance provisions. These provisions largely include establishing an updated 15-member TNHAA Board staffed by New Haven and East Haven personnel. The proposal also instituted supermajority voting requirements for actions such as runway expansion, capacity increases and changes to airport access.
The resulting mutually agreed framework accompanies several key components for future development. These include leveraging $40 million in state funding for public safety facilities in East Haven, increasing East Haven’s annual payment instead of taxes by roughly $1 million annually and securing $5 million for each municipality to advance roadway, traffic safety, drainage, environmental and other neighborhood improvements.
The framework establishes foundational provisions for several other aspects pertaining to airport operations and the upcoming East Terminal project, including:
- Updates for the airport entrances and exits in addition to a new coordinated traffic configuration.
- Preservation of West Terminal parking.
- Coordination of roadway design, traffic flow and mitigation measures.
- Creating a process for traffic mitigation, infrastructure planning and environmental review.
- Implementing noise mitigation and monitoring measures.
Photo by Mateo Valdes from Pexels
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