Boston Sunday Globe
Northwest Weekly section
March 31, 2002

Petition to cite Hanscom traffic congestion

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

BEDFORD -- Save Our Heritage, a Concord-based hisotric preservation group that has been fighting Shuttle America's expansion since the commuter airline began serving Hanscom Field in September 1999, will soon ask the Federal Aviation Administration to reconsider its March 18 approval of the airline's operating specifications for Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y.

Anna Winter, the group's executive director, said a petition will be submitted to the FAA before the 30-day filing period expires on April 17.

Shuttle America, which does business as U.S. Airways Express, has said it will begin service to White Plains on April 15, with five round trips a day. The airline, which has executive offices in Windsor Locks, Conn., postponed a March 18 launch date due to a delay in the delivery of two aircraft.

Save Our Heritage will give the FAA a traffic analysis, prepared by a consultant, that will "demonstrate that Shuttle America's 46 daily operations (including the White Plains flights) will significantly worsen traffic congestion at the three intersections on Battle Road," Winter said.

She was referring to the junctions of Battle Road with Bedford Road, or Meriam's Corner, with Brooks Road and Route 2A, and with Hanscom Drive.

"This additional congestion will have a negative effect, increasing noise and pollution in Minute Man National Historical Park," Winter said.

For those reasons, the FAA should conduct an environmental review "before it allows [Shuttle America's] Westchester flights," she said.

In other news concerning Hanscom:

-- Shuttle America had fewer operations and logged in fewer passengers last year than in 2000, according to a "State of Hanscom" report recently issued by the Massachusetts Port Authority, owner-operator of Hanscom Field.

In 2001, the airline had 6,414 operations and 134,337 passengers, compared with 6,572 operations and 162,000 passengers in the previous year.

The declines are attributed to interrupted service following the airline's filing form Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2001, when, for example, service was halted to New York's LaGuardia Airport. It was resumed in February of this year.

-- Massport consultants are fine-tuning a voluminous 2001-2006 vegetation management plan for Hanscom Field, said Richard Walsh, a spokesman for the authority. It's expected, he said, that public hearings on the plan will be held in late April or early May by the conservation commissions of Bedford, Concord, Lincoln and Lexington.

An environmental consulting firm, Dufresne-Henry Inc. of Portland, Maine, is assisting the agency with the plan.

One of the most contentious issues, how to handle two of Bedford's prime properties adjoining the airfield, will be taken up this year. They are the 118-acre Hartwell Town Forest and the 37-acre Jordan Conservation Area.

Meanwhile, Walsh said, Massport wants to get going this summer on clearing underbrush and trees near runways. It is hoped, he said, tat this work can be completed next winter.

[Material about parking issues in connection with upcoming Air Show at Hanscom Air Force Base omitted.]

==========
**NOTICE: In accordance with 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.** ==========