Runway 28L/10R at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL/KFLL)
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (IATA: FLL/ICAO: KFLL) is the primary airport serving the city of Fort Lauderdale, FL and including surrounding cities in Broward County such as Hollywood hence the name Fort Lauderdale-HOLLYWOOD. The airport is situated 3 and a half miles south of Downtown Fort Lauderdale and 4 and a half miles north of Downtown Hollywood and is located in Dania Beach. The airport operates with 2 parallel runways, runways 10L/28R on the north side measuring 9,000ft long and topic of this article, the southern runways 10R/28L measuring 8,000ft long with both runways being 150ft wide. On the west end (RWYs 10L/R) of the airport, both runways are at the same elevation but the more east you go, the north runway remains at the same elevation while the southern runway goes up in elevation the more it goes west eventually reaching 65ft above the rest of the airport the equivalent of 6 stories tall. It includes an overpass above a perimeter road, the Florida East Coast Railroad tracks and US-1, FL-A1A, FL-5. It’s not the first runway like this in the United States but is still one of few runways with an overpass of a major roadway and railroad. Now why was this built in the first place? Why was it a problem? And how much has it helped the airport? Let’s talk about that.
Aerial view of FLL airport from 2000-2009ish with the old south runway and diagonal runway, both have since been decommissioned.
In 2008, FLL was a very congested airport, it had consistently ranked top 5 in airports in the United States for most delays. Even 18 years ago, FLL was still ranked as the 3rd busiest airport in the state of Florida behind Orlando International Airport (MCO) and the nearby Miami International Airport (MIA) and continues to retain its bronze status to this day. At the time, the airport had 3 runways, one is the existing northern runway 9L/27R (now 10L/28R) the previous southern runway 9R/27L and a diagonal runway 13/31. However for most passenger flights, it was mostly just 2 runways as the southern runway was very short and narrow, essentially reserved for general aviation traffic. Diagonal runways also tend to rarely be used for take offs unless there is a significant crosswind so it was truly runway 9L/27R handling all of the traffic at Florida’s 3rd busiest airport. A plan has now been put into place to replace the southern runway with a new one capable of handling commercial aircraft to compliment the northern runway. It was approved by airport officials and Broward County Commission and the project was soon in a full swing.
Satellite view of FLL with the 2 roadway and railroad obstacles on both sides (labeled in red) and the length of the runway if kept within the airport perimeter.
When building expansion for large pieces of infrastructure like airport runways you have to assess the space you have to work with. And with the site of the southern part of FLL, there really wasn’t a whole lot. To the east you have the aforementioned FEC tracks and US-1, FL-A1A and FL-5 and to the west is the great I-95 and alongside the highway are the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority tracks and some yacht storage facilities. Without obstructing any of the outside obstacles, the runway would have to measure roughly 4,412ft long, shorter than the primary runway at Rio de Janeiro’s Santos Drumont Airport. While narrow body aircraft like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 family can operate on short runways like this, it isn’t ideal given the restrictions on weight and the increased chance of a runway overrun. So whether they liked it or not, to build a long sufficient runway, they had to expand out of the airport perimeters and make an overpass over either 2 surface streets and a railroad or an interstate highway and another railroad. Ultimately, the decision was to expand eastward meaning the overpass would be built above US-1, FL-A1A, FL-5 and the FEC tracks. The reason for this can be because it would be easier to build an overpass above a surface street compared to a major interstate highway and also there is no development east of the airport apart from contained storage areas belonging to the adjacent Port Everglades. While runway designs like this already existed around the country at this time including runways 25L/R and 07R/L at Los Angeles International Airport which goes over Sepulveda Blvd (CA-1) and runway 10/28 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport going over I-285, both of those examples do not have slopes while FLLs will.
The cost of this project was $781M with the maximum height of the proposed overpass being 45ft tall. However this height wasn’t practical as it wasn’t enough for traffic on the roadway below and trains on the tracks, this resulted in the slope bent 65ft tall or the equivalent of 6 stories. County Commissioners received heavy backlash about the slope and design with some people calling it a “third-world design” The city of Dania Beach threatened to sue the county over the runway expansion with questions about aircraft actually being able to use it and FAA regulations. The FAA allows for a runway to have a 1.5% slope or 1.5 per 100ft of runway maximum. The proposal runway has a slope of 1.3% which follows the FAAs guidelines and even with backlash, the FAA approved the project and everything was good to go.
Aerial of FLL airport in 2013 with construction on the new runway 10R/28L well underway with the old runway already removed and the soon to be removed diagonal runway 13/31
Opening day of runway 10R/28L with N709JB, a JetBlue Airbus A320-200 carrying the Exede Internet livery being the first aircraft to use
On Monday January 23rd, 2012, ground broke on the project with an estimated completion date of September 2014, the diagonal runway was decommissioned on May 6th, 2013. On September 18th, 2024 the new runway 10R/28L and overpass opened with JetBlue Airbus A320 carrying the Exede Internet livery operating as JetBlue Flight 1028, a charter flight carrying 150 passengers being the first aircraft to use it. Upon landing, many pictures were taken of the arrival and one of those photographs is on display in the TSA security checkpoint in terminal 4 concourse G. With the new runway in operation, FLL can now handle up to 425,000 annual flights and can better accommodate future growth down the line. Even the experience on the road will be better with US-1, FL-A1A and FL-5 now being a 6 lane highway rather than the previous 4 lane it had. As for the houses who initially opposed the project, Broward County has agreed to install hurricane proof windows and doors in an attempt to combat the heavy noise associated with the new runway. 20% of this will be covered by the county with the FAA covering the remaining 80%
That will be it regarding the story of this unique runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, this is @NonStopsAviation checking out!
All of these photos were taken on opening day (September 18th, 2014)
https://simpleflying.com/fort-lauderdale-sloped-runway-story/