PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — For the next several weeks, people living in parts of Pinellas County might notice a lot more airplane noise.
That’s because St. Pete Clearwater International is undergoing a facelift on its main runway and the shift to the backup runway might give some folks a temporary headache.
“I hear it. I watch the plane go. And it’s gone in 10 or 15 seconds,” Helen Yeager who lives near PIE said.
Yeager says the change in flight paths has been noticeable over the past few days.
"When I see it come up it comes here, whereas usually they’re going straight across the Bay," she said. "Whereas here they kind of make a tilt and then go back."
Flights in and out of St. Pete-Clearwater International that would usually take off and land on runway 18-36 have been using the airport’s secondary runway 4-22. And they will be for the next month.
The change in angle means some people who aren’t usually in the flight path of airplanes taking off and landing are for the time being.
“If it’s only four weeks, it’s only four weeks,” Denise Walters who lives nearby said. “If it was a permanent change, I don’t think it would change our lives any, but if you lived over here, maybe.”
"This is a 100% temporary condition," the airport’s Deputy Director, Mark Sprague, said. "We don’t foresee any of it lasting more than 27 days. Hopefully, shorter."
Sprague says the switch is necessary during pavement repairs on the airport’s main runway.
“And it’s just going through and looking at any settlement cracks, any depressions that we might have. Things that are all safety related,” he said.
The airport has posted a notice on its website letting folks know about the switch.
Areas likely to experience some extra rumblings include Clearwater, Pinellas Park, Largo, Seminole, Redington Shores, Redington Beach and North Redington Beach.
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The airport also has a Noise Affairs Office ready to answer questions and can be reached at (727) 453-7877 or airportnoise@fly2pie.com.
“And they are asking if there is a shifting pattern that is going to be permanent,” Sprague said. “And we say rest assured it’s only a temporary condition.”
When the project is finished, the airport says it’s bigger aircraft will go back to using it’s bigger runway.
The repair work, which is expected to last at least 15 years, is no small job.
PIE’s main runway is 9,730 feet in length. That’s nearly two miles.
The runway has increasingly seen its share of use. In September, the airport logged it’s seventh month in a row of record passenger loads.