Date: 201701
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: ORD.Airport, IL
Flight conditions: IMC
Weather elements / visibility: Icing; Rain
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: Medium Transport
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Flight phase: Final Approach
Airspace: Class B ORD
ATC / advisory: Tower ORD
Second aircraft: Large Transport
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Local
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Situational Awareness; Confusion; Workload; Distraction; Time Pressure
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
When detected: Taxi; In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert
Contributing factors: Procedure; Weather
Primary problem: Weather

Narrative: I was in the North tower at ORD. The conditions were IFR ceiling and visibility; plus freezing precipitation. Runway 9L hadn't been used all night and my first arrival was Aircraft X. I asked them for a braking action PIREP and they gave me Fair to Good. I passed that to the next arrival; who passed a Good braking action report to me. I only received Good braking action reports for the next hour. After the first 2-3 arrivals; City [Vehicle] asked for a runway inspection. I gave them 3 minutes between 2 arrivals and they finished. Then; the final picked up and I landed about 10 more aircraft. City [Vehicle] came back for another inspection and I was instructed to pull out Aircraft Y on about a 15 mile final. This was a critical runway inspection. After City [Vehicle] finished; I asked why the second inspection. They stated that they needed Mu [testing friction; mu is the co-efficient of friction] readings; which were all above 40. I landed 10 more aircraft; none with less than a Good braking action. The freezing precipitation continued. I was instructed to send around all aircraft on my final due to another critical runway inspection. City [Vehicle] was put back on Runway 9L. Aircraft Z was short final; under the cloud deck when I sent it around. The next 3 aircraft were kept in line on approach until they were turned back along the arrival area and handed off to C90 (TRACON). All morning; pilots were reporting rain above 2;300 MSL and Light Rime Ice below 2;300. So at least 2 of these go arounds were forced to re-enter icing conditions. All this because of two critical runway inspections; during times when aircraft were constantly giving me Good braking action reports and Mu readings were above 40. I was later told that they need to check the runway every 25 minutes. This put aircraft that were landing in good conditions back into known icing conditions. First; I think the procedure is over-restrictive. If a runway has good conditions; there is no need to force a go around to confirm that it is indeed good. But; if we are to continue this procedure; then better coordination needs to happen. We should have the finals dry up every 25 minutes to let the city vehicles do their inspections. This would require better communication between the tower supervisor; the TMCs at the tower and TRACON; and the city operations. This should also trigger a lower arrival rate to accommodate the runways closing for inspections. Go-arounds always put flight crews in a high workload situation; especially ones that are issued inside a 2 mile final. This was a waste of fuel; waste of time for passengers; and more importantly puts the aircraft at a greater risk than necessary.




Synopsis: ORD Tower Controller reported an unsafe situation where the Local Controller sent aircraft around to do a runway braking action check every 25 minutes.