2000
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airport expansion and the RETF
The Cleveland Hopkins International Airport needed to construct an additional runway to better serve the public of Northeast Ohio. Their new runway necessitated the demolition of the neighboring NASA Glenn Research Center’s Rocket Engine Test Facility (RETF).
Click the photos below to view aerials that show the progress of the runway during its construction near the RETF site.
2000
September 2002
July 2003
September 2003
November 2003
February 2004
The RETF was located immediately adjacent to the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. As early as 1977, a proposed expansion of the airport threatened to utilize the land occupied by the RETF.
Throughout the 1980s, negotiations between the City of Cleveland and the City of Brook Park failed to reach an agreement on an alternative plan that would allow the airport to expand toward a direction that would not affect the RETF.
A decision was finally made by the City of Cleveland in 1995 to plan for the construction of a new runway toward the southwest, meaning that this planned runway would need to cross over the RETF site. Due to this and various other reasons, NASA canceled its plans to improve RETF and closed the facility on July 1, 1995. The RETF was demolished in 2003, and the new runway opened in 2004.
The City of Cleveland is designing a new building within NASA’s campus to house critical test equipment from RETF that will become operational in 2006.
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airport expansion and the RETF
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