Yes — and not just any plans, but big plans. After all, this is Las Vegas.
Ironically, the new-airport idea was first imagined by Howard Hughes in the mid-1960s. His original intention for Las Vegas, when he arrived and started buying up the place, was to build the world's largest airport, which could handle the supersonic suborbital aircraft he envisioned at the time for the near future. He planned the airport for thousands of acres he owned on the west side of the valley.
The new airport, however, is a bit farther afield, since Hughes's original site is now occupied by Summerlin and Sun City. The all-new $4 billon county-funded airport will be built in Ivanpah Valley, 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas on I-15 between Jean and Primm, Nevada.
Ivanpah Valley was determined to be the last site in southern Nevada that best meets the criteria for a project of this scope. No high mountains are nearby. There's a minimum of commercial and residential development in the immediate area. Also, Ivanpah's airspace doesn't conflict with McCarran's or Nellis Air Force Base's.
The total project could occupy up to nearly 24,000 acres, of which 17,000 would be adjacent lands controlled by the county to prevent incompatible development near the airport zone. The airport itself is planned for 6,500 acres on the east side of Interstate 15. Initially, the 1,925-acre airfield would feature two or three runways, each approximately 14,000 feet long, to handle large cargo aircraft. About 1,400 acres would house the 14-gate terminal complex, with another 2,500 acres reserved for third-party users, such as cargo companies. To start out, Ivanpah would handle 5 million travelers; at full build-out, 35 million people would pass through annually.
It's a long process, building a big-city airport from scratch. The environmental impact study alone will take an estimated five years (2005-2010). Then the utility and drainage systems must be designed and installed (2007-2012). Meanwhile, federal approval or disapproval must be tendered (2010). The design of the airport itself is planned to take four years (2011-2015). And finally, building it will run from 2013-2017.
Also included is a plan for a light-rail system to transport passengers into Las Vegas. A high-speed bullet train has also been proposed to connect the new airport with the city, just one leg of an ultra-high-speed rail system that could extend all the way to Anaheim, California.
The 2017 date is realistic, according to planners, although McCarran, the nation's sixth-busiest airport, is projected to reach its passenger capacity of 53 million as early as 2010 (though it's more likely to be closer to 2015, at the current rate of increases).
The county has spent upwards of $24 million, so far, on the process, including land surveys, initial environmental studies, and incipient plans for the airport and its vicinity; it also includes $20 million spent to secure nearly 6,000 acres from the BLM.
An airspace plan has been completed and approved by the federal government. It shows the proposed airport wouldn't adversely impact the Mohave National Preserve south of the site. For its part, the preserve won't interfere with the airport, either.
However, environmentalists disagree, arguing that noise from aircraft takeoffs and landings and increased traffic on I-15 past the preserve "will impact the park's natural soundscape." In addition, air pollution will be a significant issue, as will storm drainage and building atop the valley's poor soil.
The first passenger-users of the new airport would probably be charter flights —- generally "homogeneous groups who take the same bus to the same hotel." The second group would be long-distance flyers, especially from abroad; it wouldn't make sense for passengers on a 45-minute flight from Los Angeles to be faced ith a 45-minute drive from town. Finally, domestic and international cargo flights could land at Ivanpah, with freight off-loaded and stored in warehouses on site, then distributed around the metropolitan area, state, and western U.S. as required.
