> Cars wait patiently as a Jumbo taxies on the runway at the Gibraltar Airport They’re showing a picture of (I think) an A220? In what world is even an A320 a jumbo…
Pretty sure it's a 757, but that's not a jumbo jet either.
Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road
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Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road
#22The town I grew up in, Gisborne New Zealand, had an airport that had a railway line crossing the runway. Perhaps unsurprisingly the trains had to give way to the planes. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/08/gisborne-airport-runwa...
I find that surprising rather than unsurprising. After all, a plane can easily do a no-fault turn-around and can observe the train in a collision path from up above while the same cannot be said for a train.
That may be sometimes/mostly (can pilots really spot a train in bad weather? is the train even visible from the air and not obscured by trees, buildings, in a tunnel?) true for planes landing, but not for planes taking off.
Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road
#23I lived next to the runway for about an year. I can actually seem the apartment from some of the photos. It was an interesting place. It's really just after the border with Spain so if you stay in the country you don't need to cross it every day, but more people work in Gib than live so there is quite a good amount of traffic. As with most things, you get used to it and it just becomes normal very quickly. The best t…
Was it not super loud?
Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road
#24There are plenty of places where the runway is the road
Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road
#25Ometepe, an island in Nicaragua also has this. There is virtually no traffic control either. You've just got to look both ways... and up, before you drive across it.
[0] https://www.google.com/maps/@11.5238261,-85.7012237,1228m/da...
Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road
#26The town I grew up in, Gisborne New Zealand, had an airport that had a railway line crossing the runway. Perhaps unsurprisingly the trains had to give way to the planes. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/08/gisborne-airport-runwa...
That’s interesting, I would’ve been concerned about what happens to the tires when a plane taking off/landing hits those tracks, but I guess it isn’t an issue.
Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road
#27Seeing the headline, I thought that can't be right; there are plenty of airport runways built on overpasses over major highways. The possibility of an at-grade crossing between a public road and an international airport runway was not even in the realm of imagination for me!
It severely limits traffic, both air and land. There will be a tunnel for cars opening later this year. It is another kind of road rage sitting 45 minutes in a car in a queue when some dick decides to land with his private jet.
This doesn't seem like that much of a burden to endure.
There are many many places in the USA where vehicular traffic must defer to rail traffic at level crossings. Which can easily occur more often than 30x per week (30 number is from the article).
At some crossings it's not unusual to have a slow moving freight train take 15 minutes or more. How long is the road crossed for each plane? I'd expect 5 or 10 minutes max for a takeoff, I can understand they would want more time for a landing?
Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road
#28Nauru's airport also crosses a road.
Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road
#29The runway of the main airport on the Shetland Islands (Sumburgh Airport[0]) also crosses one of the main roads (A970[1]). Access is controlled by a level crossing with barriers closed whenever a flight is taking off or landing. If you hire a car at the airport you get to drive over the runway (when the barriers are open) which is an unusual experience. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumburgh_Airport [1] https://e…
I wonder how often someone mistakenly or deliberately turns down the runway...? It isn't like they can really have a kerb or a fence stopping you...
I would say it's near impossible to do accidentally. And If you did so deliberately it wouldn't be a major safety incident and you could expect some prison time or a large fine.
I've actually driven over this and didn't even remember it as you're so far from the airport buildings at that point. Unlike Gibraltar where it's actually rather busy https://maps.app.goo.gl/disXPcTEh3GMfwAF8
Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road
#30The town I grew up in, Gisborne New Zealand, had an airport that had a railway line crossing the runway. Perhaps unsurprisingly the trains had to give way to the planes. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/08/gisborne-airport-runwa...
That’s interesting, I would’ve been concerned about what happens to the tires when a plane taking off/landing hits those tracks, but I guess it isn’t an issue.
They look small since they're next to big planes, but plane tires are actually quite big, so I'm not surprised they wouldn't have any trouble w/ the tracks.