ANCHORAGE - While air traffic at Merrill Field has reached a 20-year low, Fairview residents said the neighborhood airport has become noisier than ever before.
“We’ll get airplanes turning before they’re supposed to and they’ll end up making a lot of noise over the neighborhoods,” said SJ Klein, president of the Fairview Community Council.
The problem has been so persistent, area residents are participating in a noise study to map out exactly which areas are most disturbed by the sounds of airport operations. The study would become part of Merrill Field’s new master plan, and engineers would then work with neighbors and airport management to mitigate the problem.
John McPherson, master plan project manager, said the entire process could take years, and the airport noise would never really go away. Even though a noise study workshop Thursday evening drew a dozen or so Merrill Field pilots and Fairview residents, Klein said they understood the role airplanes play in Alaska life and ultimately, the noise study process was all about forming closer relations with one the area’s largest economic drivers.
“You hear planes constantly, but that’s living in Anchorage,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with airplanes; I think we all like airplane noise.”
