Floating airport idea is promoted (in San Diego)

[question everything]

Floating airport idea is promoted

UNION-TRIBUNE

September 23, 2005

ESCONDIDO – What appeared to be the beginning of a public-relations campaign by a group advocating a $5 billion to $10 billion floating airport off the San Diego coast kicked off yesterday with a demonstration at a business here.

A group that calls itself Euphlotea – the middle syllable is pronounced "float" – maintains that a floating airport is the most economical and best option for replacing Lindbergh Field. Such a concept was rejected two years ago by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

Yesterday's demonstration featured a small model, made from $173 worth of material, floating in a research pool at Offshore Model Basin, an Escondido company that does research on ship and oil platform designs. The demonstration was intended primarily to increase awareness of the possibility of an offshore airport, Euphlotea spokesman Adam Englund said.

Englund, an attorney from Encinitas, said his group wants to circulate a petition for a ballot initiative to compete against the November 2006 measure the airport board is working on. Euphlotea's plans can be found at www.floatingairport.org.

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050923-9999-2m23float.html

[daninthemoon]

1. Three words: Earthquake, tsunami, bad idea. 4 words.

[Sub Atomic]

3. San Diego is not prone to tsunamis

something about the topography of the ocean floor off of San Diego. I don't have a link, but remember reading it when the tsunami hit Southeast Asia.

[daninthemoon]

10. Don't know about that, but seems like anywhere you can have

earthquakes, tsunamis can follow. I just hope it's planned for.

[XemaSab]

13. Tsunami waves are usually very small

(a couple feet high) out in the ocean, it's only when they hit land that they get tall.

[slackmaster]

25. Not AS prone as Washington State, Oregon, NorCal, or Alaska

But any place on the shore of any ocean is prone to tsunamis.

We had one here in the early 1960s that broke windows on a restaurant in La Jolla.

[Sub Atomic]

2. I think this is the best possible solution

The technology of a floating airport already exists in Japan.

There are no viable spots for a new airport in San Diego county. The best location would be NAS Miramar, but that's not getting shut down anytime soon.

I think this county needs to start looking forward and being progressive on this issue rather than continue to screech that a floating airport won't work just because it's such a far-out idea.

[MindPilot]

4. yeah, after watching Katrina tear up oil rigs, this is a great idea

For the billionth time: San Diego doesn't need a new airport; it's not an international destination. We are flanked by two substantial airports, LAX to the north and TJ to the south. The driving force behind the whole new airport crowd is the developers who want more hotels and million-dollar condos.

On of the things that makes San Diego so livable is a nice, compact very accessible downtown airport.

What we really need is high-speed rail to LAX.

[BeyondGeography]

6. As an annual visitor, I agree

Nothing beats a downtown airport for convenience. McCarran is basically the only thing I like about Vegas for that reason (that and a couple of restaurants).

Right after 9/11, the security line was a nightmare in San Diego, but things have gotten much better since. I'm a little surprised that they're seriously considering a teardown; must be a real estate scam involved somewhere.

[MindPilot]

8. I'm surprised the unrestrained capitalists don't see that.

My employer does a lot of business in Denver; they really hate those $80 cab fares from DIA to downtown.

Edit spelling

[BeyondGeography]

11. Oh boy, the airport from hell

It's not just the cab fare. God forbid you rent a car in Denver and you need to return it to that sprawling nightmare of an airport. The bus ride from Avis to DIA alone is as long as the cab ride from downtown San Diego to the airport.

[anotherdrew]

5. sure, what could go wrong?

[bananas]

7. Good site about the proposals

http://www.san.org/authority/assp/index.asp
Click on the map to get an interactive display of the proposals
http://www.san.org/flash/assp/map_load.swf

[DS1]

9. Japan did it. But American won't do it right, because

some idiot fuckwit will get his fingers in the cash pile and take his cut, and do something ( anything ) on the cheap. And it will weaken and fall into the sea in half the expected lifespan of the installation.

[shireen]

16. but Kansai Int. airport is sinking

according to a documentary i saw on one of the Discovery channels, the airport, actually built on a man-made island, is .... uh ... sinking.

http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~schuang/CE24/kansai.html

[Javaman]

22. It's sinking big time...

There are elevators built into the base that were supposed to compensate for sinking correction, that was theorized about. However, the corrections were based on models that the airport would sink x amount over 150 years. Well now, they are in deep shit because that 150 years of sinking only took a few years to complete and the correction elevators are now at their maximum height. So there is only one place to go, and that is down.

It was a clever idea, but like many ideas, they usually don't survive reality.

[gulfcoastliberal]

12. Just what a Bankrupt San Diego needs

Anyone see the Tokyo "floating airport" featured on Extreme Engineering? The damn thing is sinking. Billions in cost overruns later, it's still sinking. They just bought some time. Bad idea.

[DBoon]

28. but think of all the san diego-based government contractors

they will get one more chance to suck the economic life out of the region.

[gulfcoastliberal]

29. Zing!

Good one! :thumbsup:

[buddysmellgood]

14. It's not going float. It's going to sink, suck and cost big time, just

like the one in the east.

[sdfernando]

15. We don't need a new airport.

I’ve lived in San Diego since 1977 and from the moment I got here there has been constant talk and studies to move the airport. 30 freaking years of studies at a cost of millions of dollars and so far the airport has not moved ONE INCH! No one wants the increased traffic or noise in their area. The residents of Point Loma (the area that most of the flight take off over) don’t want it either. But If you moved their after the airport was built you have no standing in my book.

I once had a coworker who summed it up perfectly. San Diego is a destination. People come here for a vacation, they don’t come here as a weigh station on the way to someplace else. As such, we don’t need a big ‘hub” or “international” airport. Repeat, San Diego is a destination.

[maveric]

17. Its a case of NIMBY and corrupt/stupid planners in local govt.

They all want a new airport but not in their backyard.
The City has no money so how exactly would they fund this?

[question everything]

18. A catch-22

You build an airport in an open space. Pretty soon some people want to live next door: airport workers, pilots, flight attendants, businesses and hotel that find it convenient to be near an airport.

You start building housing units, cheap, to compensate for the noise, so many who cannot afford other homes move there.

The airport starts growing and expanding - this is what airports do.

The people living next door start screaming and will find a clever lawyer who would petition to stop the expansion, to demand an EIR.

Both sides start fighting, lawyers and lobbyists make money, tax payers spend money on this at the expense of, say, health care for the poor and school lunches.

Eventually some comprise. Or, as with Denver, move the airport outside of town to build a mega modern airport but then you complain at the cost of a taxi or a car rental.

What no one is doing, except Minneapolis, is get a light rail, a subway, or other rail form from the airport to the downtown, at least.

NYC two years ago built a nice air train to JFK, but one still need to get to Jamaica, somehow, and if one takes the subway from Times Square, one still has to drag one's luggage up and down the stairs.

New Year's Day we landed in Minneapolis after an ice storm, where many flights were canceled, where there were very few taxis and long lines of people waiting for one.

We took the new light rail to the down town and from there got a taxi home, to the suburb, driving very slowly and carefully, and at half the cost.

[henslee]

19. On the heels of theiir recent scandals/corruptions/power plays, I

cannot see the sensible folks of S.D. getting moved by this idea.

[nolabels]

24. What's wrong with floating?

Like San Diego can float their bankruptcy and a washed up mayor in the governor's office, so why not an airport :shrug:

[henslee]

26. Nothing. I am all for newfangled ideas. But I just dont see people

going for a whoppingly expensive project at this point in time. Frankly, I don't care. I do love S.D but I love old S.D.

[slackmaster]

20. Euphlotea people smoke crack

:smoke:

[Javaman]

21. oh just like that successful one in Japan that is sinking?

[anotherdrew]

23. this airport is unsinkable!

how about we make it up in the air with giant balloons maybe instead?

[sweetheart]

27. If they make the runway long enough

People can walk to tokyo and save on the cost of oil. But it seems they
are "phlot"ing the idea as something to do with the EU (European Union),
so perhaps the runway will be super duper long and go around cape horn
and come straight to london, and then planes can go 2mph and save lots
of fuel taxiing to san diego. :-)