TLUC endorses Runway 30 design group recommendations including steeper climb and overnight noise track

The county’s Transportation and Land Use Committee on Oct. 22 endorsed a set of design group recommendations aimed at reducing aircraft noise over residential neighborhoods near the end of Dulles Airport’s Runway 30 and asked staff to forward the package to the regional project group and the Federal Aviation Administration for further review.

The committee voted 4‑0 (one member off the dais) to recommend the design group’s package, which the consultant team described as having three implementation categories: short‑term procedural changes that could be implemented by local control and publication, a nighttime track to reduce low‑altitude overflights, and longer‑term RNAV (area navigation) procedure design that would need to go through the FAA’s formal procedure safety and implementation process.

"First on the list was safety," consultant Jim Allardyce of Vionaire said when summarizing the design group’s priorities, which also included maintaining efficiency, reducing track variability near the airport and avoiding overflight of noise‑sensitive areas such as schools and places of worship.

Short‑term recommendations that staff and consultants said could be implemented…