The Memorial Day weekend getaway got off to a rough start at LaGuardia Airport in New York, where work to repair a sinkhole near a runway stretched into a third day on Friday.
LaGuardia’s schedule was riddled with delays on Friday after airport officials announced that one of two runways would remain closed until Saturday morning. The runway, known as 4-22, has been shut down since inspectors discovered a sinkhole along its edge on Wednesday.
By late afternoon on Friday, nearly 600 flights in and out of LaGuardia had been delayed, though just a small number had been canceled, according to statistics from FlightAware, a tracking service. The average delay was about an hour, FlightAware showed.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia, said the airport would remain open, but urged travelers to check with their airlines for updates on the status of their flights. The agency said that it intended to reopen the runway at 6 a.m. on Saturday.
The Port Authority had expected the airport to be back at full capacity by Friday morning, Kathryn Garcia, the agency’s executive director, said on Thursday. But the agency said it had decided to keep the runway closed on Friday “out of an abundance of caution.” Lights in the shape of a giant X on the tarmac signaled to pilots that the runway was not available.
Speaking to reporters after the monthly meeting of the Port Authority’s board of commissioners, Ms. Garcia said that the cause of the sinkhole had not been determined.
LaGuardia, one of the busiest airports in the United States, is perched alongside Flushing Bay. The closed runway usually handles most of the airport’s takeoffs and landings, which total nearly 1,000 a day.
More than 60 years ago, that runway was extended 2,000 feet to the north on a pile-supported concrete structure over the bay. The sole runway that was operating on Friday, known as 12-31, has an east-west orientation along the waterfront, perpendicular to runway 4-22.
The Port Authority said crews using ground-penetrating radar had found “possible areas of concern” on Thursday. After repairing those spots, engineering crews continued to survey the area on Friday, the agency said.
The same runway was the site of a fatal collision two months ago involving an inbound Air Canada Express jet and an airport fire truck. The jet’s two pilots were killed in the crash.
Patrick McGeehan is a Times reporter who covers the economy of New York City and its airports and other transportation hubs.
The post Sinkhole Keeps LaGuardia Runway Closed for a 3rd Day, Causing Delays appeared first on New York Times.
