The decision to build runways has traditionally elicited strong and often emotional reactions among stakeholders, both negative and positive. Generally, these reactions are directed at the decision to build a runway— usually in response to the perceived environmental or economic impacts that the proposed project will have on the surrounding communities. Often, opponents to a runway project base their opposition on the belief that the negative impact of the runway on their quality of life will outweigh the projected benefits of the project. At other times, opponents contend that alternatives such as high-speed rail, regional airports, or demand management are better alternatives to resolving delay issues than building new runways. In contrast, proponents of new runway projects generally contend that building new runways can increase the level of service and reduce delay at the airport, can result in a positive economic impact to the region served by the airport, and in some cases can reduce noise pollution by distributing flights over a larger geographical area. Airports that plan to build runways must comply with what can become a complex process involving three general phases that often overlap: planning, environmental review, and design and construction. In addition, airports can be involved in legal actions that can occur in any or all of the three phases. The first phase in the runway development process is planning. According to FAA guidance, airports should begin planning for a new runway when the airport has reached 60 to 75 percent of total annual flight capacity. During the planning phase, airport authorities and local officials begin by identifying the type of development needed at a specific airport and the proposed project’s estimated cost and benefits, in both political and economic terms. Some of the planning tasks include establishing the purpose and need for the runway (for example, assessing the capability of current facilities, reviewing and refining aviation demand forecasts, and evaluating options to accommodate forecast demands), coordinating land use issues with community planning boards, and preparing capacity enhancement plans, master plans, airspace reviews, cost benefit analyses, and airport layout plans. Further, most airports consider numerous alternatives for increasing capacity or reducing delay before deciding on a project to pursue. During this phase, airports will begin addressing how to fund the proposed project. The environmental review phase, which often overlaps with planning, is the second phase in the runway development process. This phase typically begins with a determination by FAA of the extent to which a proposed project will affect the quality of the environment. To make this determination, FAA examines the proposed project and its possible environmental impacts on air and water quality, on noise, and on historical lands. FAA will make one of three determinations. If the agency determines that the scope of the project is such that it will not directly affect the environment, it will issue a categorical exclusion. If FAA determines that a project will have a measurable effect on the environment, but that its impact will not exceed guidelines established in the agency’s Environmental Handbook, it will issue a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). After issuance of a FONSI, runway projects can begin applying for necessary permits, such as those that may be required under the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act. Where potentially significant impacts are obvious, FAA will proceed directly to the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) rather than start with the airport sponsors’ environmental assessment. If FAA determines that a proposed project will have significant environmental effects, it will issue a notice of intent to prepare an EIS. An EIS includes an analysis of the potential environmental effects of a proposed project and how to mitigate significant impacts. Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations do not require that all impacts be mitigated; agencies are required to disclose impacts that will not be mitigated, and the reason. After the draft EIS is completed, FAA provides it to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which publishes a notice of its availability in the Federal Register, where it is made available for review and comment to federal, state, and local agencies and the public for at least 45 days. Public hearings, if necessary, usually occur during the review and comment period. At the end of the public comment period, FAA responds to comments received on the draft and prepares the final EIS. Once FAA approves the final EIS, the document is printed, distributed, and once again filed with EPA. EPA subsequently publishes notice of the availability of the final EIS in the Federal Register. According to CEQ regulations, FAA can not issue a Record of Decision (ROD) for at least 30 days after the publication of the final EIS. Once the final EIS has been issued, it takes FAA an average of about 3 months to issue a ROD. The ROD, which is the final step of the environmental review process, summarizes the administrative record of the agency’s proposals, alternatives, analysis, findings/ determinations, decisions, actions, and mitigation measures that were made a condition of approval of the EIS. If, however, FAA finds that the revised draft differs significantly from the initial draft, the agency may issue a supplemental draft EIS and release this document for further review and comment. In addition, other factors that may lead to a supplemental EIS include a change in the proposed action, a change in the agency’s decision, or new reasonable alternatives not previously evaluated. A supplemental draft EIS can occur anywhere in the environmental process. In addition to the requirements above, airport sponsors may be required to obtain environmental permits/approvals from other state, local, and federal agencies before they can begin construction of the proposed project. These permits/approvals cover various federal and state requirements related to wetlands, water and air quality, coastal zone management, and endangered species, among others. These requirements arise from various regulations, including the federal Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. For example, the Army Corp of Engineers requires permits when proposed projects have an impact on wetlands under the Clean Water Act. State and local agencies may also be responsible for requiring permits dealing with air and water quality. Similar to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, the permitting process may include a public review and comment period. Project opponents may initiate litigation once the final EIS has been approved and the FAA has issued a favorable ROD. However, a lawsuit can be filed at any time during the planning, environmental, and design and construction phases. Following the completion of the permit process, project sponsors generally begin the final phase of the runway development process—the design and construction phase. This phase includes a myriad of tasks, such as project engineering, financing, contracting, land acquisition, site preparation, and actual project construction. This phase also includes construction tasks related to mitigating noise, wetland, and other environmental impacts. According to FAA, it is common for airport sponsors to begin runway design while the environmental process is underway in the interest of saving time by undertaking these actions concurrently. Once construction of the runway has been completed, FAA certifies the runway for operation and commissions it for service. Figure 1 illustrates the main steps involved in the runway development process. The amount of time that airports spend planning and building their runways can vary because of a number of factors. For example, although it is relatively straightforward to determine the beginning and ending of the environmental and the design and construction phases of the process, there is no consensus about what constitutes the beginning of the planning phase. Consequently, the length of time and the number of activities considered by some airports to be part of the planning phase vary. Airports also described a variety of challenges that they said delayed their projects. Many of these challenges related to reaching stakeholder agreement, completing the environmental review phase, mitigating the impact of noise, or designing and constructing the actual runway. As shown in figure 2, airports we surveyed reported spending a wide range of time in completing runway projects. In general, airports reported spending less time on completed projects than they estimate they will spend on those projects not yet completed; for example, airports reported that about half of the completed runways took 10 years or less but estimated that almost all the projects that were not yet completed (16 out of 17) would take 10 years or more. According to the airports with uncompleted projects, a number of factors contributed to the time spent, such as community opposition and difficulties in dealing with environmental requirements. Figure 3 shows that the median time spent on completed runway projects was about 10 years, while the median time airports estimated they would spend on runway projects not yet completed was about 14 years. Similarly, the median time spent on the planning and environmental phases for airports that had completed these phases was significantly shorter than the median time airports estimated would be spent on those phases for projects that they had not yet completed. This may have been because the three projects in the planning phase and the five projects in the environmental phase were experiencing challenges that the airports believed would delay the completion of the respective phases. Moreover, the median time spent on the environmental phase of projects that had completed their environmental requirements under a FONSI was about 2.7 years, while the median time spent on the environmental phase of projects that had completed their environmental requirements with an EIS was about 3.7 years. This difference is likely attributable to the greater number of requirements that accompany an EIS as compared with a FONSI. In May 2001, the Department of Transportation issued a report to the Congress on an environmental review of airport improvement projects that reported results similar to our analysis. As a part of its analysis, FAA measured the average time that elapsed between the start of planning and the start of construction for 10 airports that received approval for a new runway between 1996 and 2000. FAA found that the average time from thestart of planning until the start of construction was about 10 years. The report also stated that the average time to complete an EIS for a new runway was 3.25 years from the beginning of the EIS process to the issuance of the Record of Decision—or about one-third of the 10-year time.