One of the world’s busiest airports is set to undergo a multi-million dollar upgrade.
Chicago‘s O’Hare International Airport will receive a $65 million investment, officials confirmed Monday, according to NBC Chicago.
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The U.S. Transportation Secretary announced that the funds will be used in part to construct new runways at the airport, which is currently the world’s fourth-busiest.
“This construction of runways will help Chicago maintain its status as one of the busiest in the world,” Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Assistant Administrator Bailey Edwards said via NBC. “We don’t wait around as it relates to putting money to work. When it comes to investing in infrastructure, we will get these dollars to the airport as quickly as possible.”
Nearby Chicago Midway International Airport will also receive a boost of $276,000 to help measure noise levels as well as the impact on surrounding neighborhoods, officials announced this week. The Chicago area airports are just two of as many as 327 airports set to receive federal funding for improvements.
According to data from the FAA, O’Hare surpassed Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as the airlines/chicago-ohare-bumps-atlanta-as-busiest-airport-in-united-states.html” target=”_self” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>busiest airport in the U.S. in 2018, reporting more than 903,000 arrivals and departures last year.
O’Hare is also airlines/chicago-s-o-hare-airport-eyes-dramatic-expansion.html” target=”_self” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>eyeing an ambitious $8.5 billion expansion project that would allow the airport to dramatically increase capacity.