The strib has been running some articles on the new runway like this one and this one. They also ran a letter here.
I did a few lookups on qwest dex to try and figure out where they live. Volk is in the articles are in the fabled 60-65 DNL corridor. This is the swath of houses who will recieve minimal upgrades. Murray seems to be in the 65 DNL elgible area as listed by the MAC and the City of Bloomington. They are going to get the physical upgrades.
You can see the general area here:
I don't see anything better happening -- Minneapolis has been trying to get the MAC to insulate the 60-65 DNL corridor for years. The MAC supposedly promised something, I don't know the details, but its going to take forever for something to get done.
My parents live in a 60-65 DNL area (actually across the street from 65) and you do hear the planes pretty loudly outside and in the house. Being across the street doesn't make the noise go away.
Ekdahl, however, seems to be further away. Looking on the MAC site they are directly below one of the 'major' departure paths.
The above map shows takeoffs and landings. Turns out 21 takeoffs a day will be going overhead in their location. That may be 2 planes an hour during the day or a few planes during the middle of the day, in either case its a rude awakining.
The letter writer is even closer than the Murray's to the arrival path (they have to come fairly straight into the runway).
It sucks, but it sucks more to not have an airport. I did check one of above home's taxes and even though their tax value was about the same they paid easily $400 less a year. Theres definately a benefit to being in a city with an airport and closer to the cities core in that respect.
This article does say that the FAA thinks we may need a new airport by 2030. Sen. Skoglund (DFL-Minneapolis) thinks that the state should start buying up land somewhere to save (significant) amounts of money. Others will not buy-in so they don't get thrown out (and they would, no doubt) for picking a potential airport site.
From what I can tell from this document from mndot that they feel that cultivating second tier airports is a good idea and then eventually converting an airport close to the Twin Cities to another major airport. Is the airport replacement idea dead?
I'm going to keep thinking, but the solutions don't just pop out of nowhere on this issue...
