Dublin Airport will be installing soundproofing for more homes than originally expected because of a "spectacular error" in the planning of its new north runway.
The airport opened the €320m second runway this August , but from the very start of their new operation, an issue regarding departure flight paths emerged which resulted in “some local communities being unexpectedly overflown”.
Without the necessary soundproofing, the noise disrupted the lives of residents in north county Dublin which prompted them to lead a protest yesterday evening, in what was said to be the coldest day since 2010.
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Sinn Féin's Darren O'Rourke raised the issue in the Dail. "This appears to be a spectacular error," he said and has been informed by the airport authority that there will be no departures off the north runway before 9am until the current flightpath review is complete and its recommendations implemented, the Irish Examiner reported.
A spokesman for the daa told Dublin Live they immediately started a review and have coordinated with a number of stakeholders to fix the issue. They have revealed some of the Instrument Flight Procedures – the safety procedures for flying aircraft – were “not aligned to modelling assumptions included in daa’s planning submissions”.
The spokesman said that following the review, in consultation with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), there is a proposed fix which will see updates to the affected procedures. The changes will result in flight paths “aligning more closely with the information previously communicated by daa”.
They would need “a number of weeks” to complete these changes due to regulatory reviews and the noise-revised procedures will become operational in the first quarter of 2023. The local communities will be kept updated on the situation, daa says.
“It is expected that the overall number of houses in the various noise contours will be similar to that previously communicated,” the spokesman said. A small number of additional dwellings will now likely become eligible for soundproofing, as a result of the proposed update.
daa intends to provide these dwellings with the required mitigations “as soon as possible”.
"We fully appreciate the impact the ongoing situation is having on our local communities and for which we, again, sincerely apologise."
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