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Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Should metro Atlanta’s second airport be in Lawrenceville?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is already the world’s busiest, serving 85 million passengers last year and expected to serve double that number by 2025. That phenomenal growth raises the specter of the Atlanta region running short on airport capacity sometime in the next decade.
Anticipating that crunch, the U.S. Department of Transportation recently awarded a million-dollar grant to the city of Atlanta, the owner and operator of Hartsfield, to study the possibility of a second airport in the region. But where would that new airport go?
South of Hartsfield-Jackson, open land is still relatively cheap and plentiful. The lower population density in the region’s southern crescent also means that fewer homes and businesses would be adversely affected by a new airport.
On the other hand, an airport in the more heavily populated northern suburbs and exurbs would be closer to its customer base —- the majority of Georgia residents who use Hartsfield today live north of I-20, But it would also be more expensive and more difficult politically. Just ask proponents of the Northern Arc, including former Gov. Roy Barnes. His support for the controversial highway through the northern exurbs contributed a lot to his failed re-election bid.
Smaller existing airports, including those in Gainesville, Lawrenceville, Macon, Columbus and Savannah, also might be possible alternatives.
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