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Runway construction season has arrived at MSP
MSP is the busiest it’s been in five years, but construction — and weather — can sometimes limit everyone to one runway
MINNEAPOLIS — If you think road construction season is maddening in Minnesota right now, chances are you haven’t been stuck in runway construction at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Two of the four runways at the airport closed down in June for a reconstruction project that isn’t slated to finish until Sept. 21.
“This is not minor maintenance,” said Jeff Lea, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which broke ground this summer on the first major runway reconstruction project in 15 years. “There are multiple projects rolled into one. There are some taxiways, lighting, signage and then the two runways. It’s like building a brand new portion of the runway. We have to do it over the summer months because that’s when we have the time to do it and less weather impacts.”
Since cutting the amount of runways in half, Lea says the average taxi time has grown to about 20 minutes.
“At this point, it’s about 10% more delays than it was a year ago without air field construction,” Lea said. “So (the impact) hasn’t been major.”
Late last week, some travelers did see major delays. Several people reached out to KARE11 that they waited more than an hour on their planes waiting to take off last week after being told that the airport was down to a single runway.
According to Lea, weather conditions — combined with the construction closures — were to blame, giving air traffic controllers only one runway option for several hours on July 3, 4 and 5. Still, he says that type delay has been rare.
“It’s happened about 8% of the time during the first month of the project,” Lea said. “That complicates the operations for the air traffic controllers to get both arrivals and departures on a single runway.”
Kyle Potter, Editor of the Thrifty Traveler, says the combination of construction, weather and huge volumes of travelers all play into the issue.
“It’s just a numbers game,” Potter said. “They have so many flights to get out every hour, every day and when things start to stack up and there’s only one runway to get them in and out of, something has to break. What breaks is people end up delayed by hours or more.”
Because runway availability can change so quickly, there’s little anyone can do to avoid the wait, though Potter says avoiding peak times — and travel days — can improve your odds.
“We know based on looking at the data that there are more flights taking off and landing on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays than there are the rest of the week,” he said. “So that is when I would at least expect to see some more problems just because, again, it’s a numbers game.”
Lea says weather is still the biggest variable, but they are working on minimizing the impact as much as they can.
“The FAA, the MAC and airlines are talking daily about how to work through some of these challenges,” he said.
There is plenty of hope on the horizon. The project will be done by September and last year MSP was again ranked number one among global airports for timely flights.
“It is a marvel how efficient our airport is, and eventually the bill comes due, and the bill is coming due this summer, where, in order to make that it is an efficient, timely airport, they have to take care of their runways,” Potter said. “Unfortunately, this is the price we pay for having one of the best airports in the country. They have to take care of their runways and they have to do it this summer.”
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Vikings fans were ecstatic to see their team beat the New York Jets.
FRIDLEY, Minn. — Vikings fans packed Forgotten Star Brewery early Sunday morning to watch the Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets game in London.
Hundreds of people were at the Fridley brewery to watch the game on a 15-foot screen at 8:30 a.m. Hodgepodge food truck was also there serving up brunch specials for fans to have with a pint of beer.
“We were up at 4:30 this morning, ready to go, getting our gameday gear ready,” said Luke Drake. Luke got there at 6 a.m. with his wife Nicole to make sure they got a prime spot.
“Before we were together, I was a Vikings fan and not like a super crazy Vikings fan. [Now] we’re up like a 5, 6 a.m., on Sundays, and it’s like we’re ready to go, we’re in front of the TV and we’re ready for the game to start,” Nicole said.
If you can’t tell by Shannon Russell’s purple hair, she bleeds purple and gold.
“I just love football,” she said.
Russell didn’t grow up in a sports family and came across the Vikings by chance when she was 10 years old.
“I was just up watching cartoons one morning and saw the Vikings playing and not understanding what it was, and I just fell in love with it,” Russell said.
Her favorite player is No. 22.
“I love watching Harrison Smtih while he comes up and he’s like ‘Am I going to rush, I don’t know’ and then he just bails out and I love watching that,” she said.
Liz Johnson was also up early with her two kids, Henry and Alice.
“I like football. I like watching. I enjoy the surprises that come with it. I like Forgotten Star, so it’s a perfect place to be, snacks, food,” Henry said.
“It’s pretty cool because you can see the TVs over there, over there, you can look behind you and see it over there, and you can look right there and see it a giant screen,” Alice said.
Alice got creative to pass some of the time, making art with her hands.
“I’m making bracelets,” she said. “So, first you take the first one, twist it and put it around your fingers.”
Even though the kids were up early, the Johnsons wouldn’t have it any other way to watch their hometown town leave London with a win.
Police said the 7-year-old victim was skateboarding on Saturday night.
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The road closure is expected to last until about 11:30 p.m. tonight, according to MnDOT.
MINNETONKA, Minn. — Officials have closed the westbound lanes of US Highway 12 starting at I-494 in Minnetonka after a collision occurred on Saturday night.
According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s 511 Map, the road is closed and there was a “serious crash,” on the highway.
The road closure is expected to last until about 11:30 p.m. tonight, according to MnDOT.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
