West Cook News

Elmhurst residents are celebrating decreased noise levels from Chicago’s International O’Hare Airport.

The city is adjacent to Chicago’s International O’Hare Airport, with one of the runways pointed directly at the town. The city has long dealt with the noise and traffic from the airport, especially from take-offs. During the Feb. 21 Elmhurst City Council meeting, Ald. Bob Dunn said that the work of the Fly Quiet Committee and the recent modernization efforts of O’Hare have decreased the number of diagonal runways, and therefore, noise pointed toward the city.

The increased amount of East-West runways should help with noise pollution, along with increased sound barriers. While the new horizontal runways will actually increase noise levels in other communities, like Wood Dale and Rosemont, and parts of Park Ridge. Many other communities, especially south of the airport, will experience less noise. The runway directed at Elmhurst is one of two diagonal runways left in the airport, and will only be used by departing flights.

"An interesting fact that was brought up in the last meeting was that O'Hare now is the only air airport in the world that can have four simultaneous landings, because of the configuration. So that's pretty impressive," Dunn said at the meeting. 

A new study of noise and traffic levels extended the sound bubbles on the east and west sides of the airport, specifically coming out from the bottom two runways headed towards Wood Dale and Norridge, but the area around Elmhurst has shrunk. The airport will also be using quiet plans and keeping noise in the night hours, between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., to a minimum. This follows a trend of Elmhurst getting progressively quiet over the last few decades, which will hopefully continue into the next decade with the airport’s modernization efforts.