LaGuardia Airport runway closed by sinkhole expected to reopen Saturday
Repairs continue at LaGuardia Airport after a sinkhole was discovered and forced a runway to close Wednesday, causing days of delays and cancellations amid the Memorial Day weekend travel rush.
Runway 4/22 was supposed to reopen Thursday, then was pushed back to Friday, and now officials said it won't be open until 6 a.m. Saturday.
"During investigatory inspections of LaGuardia's airfield pavement Thursday using ground-penetrating radar, possible areas of concern were identified and proactively repaired," said a Port Authority spokesperson. "Out of an abundance of caution, engineering crews have decided to conduct additional inspections that necessitate the continued closure of Runway 4/22."
Sinkhole at LGA discovered Wednesday morning
The sinkhole at LaGuardia was discovered at around 11 a.m. Wednesday during a routine inspection, airport officials said. Runway 4/22, one of that airport's two runways, was immediately shut down.
Sally Marchetto and her family's flight home to St. Louis was delayed and ultimately canceled while the six of them were waiting at the airport.
"We were just sitting at the gate, and a young man came up, and he was like, 'I think they said something about a sinkhole.' And we're like, really?" Marchetto said. "They kept just flipping it back and forth, the times. Departure time at 6:30. Departure time at 7. Departure time at 8. So then they canceled it."
The family decided to stay at an Airbnb in Queens after getting rebooked on separate flights Friday.
"Tomorrow, I'm leaving at 9 a.m., and my 80-year-old parents will have to go at like 2:30," Marchetto said.
Ossining resident Lee Weinberg and his family finally took off for Kansas City on Thursday.
"Delta warned us at 9:30 p.m. last night. They canceled our flight, and, yeah, it was terrible. We lost the whole day," Weinberg said.
Olijuah Williams of Queens, who was heading to Atlanta, wasn't as fortunate.
"My flight has been canceled, you know, so under the circumstances, I'm still trying to keep my spirits up," Williams said.
LGA down a runway during repairs
LaGuardia, which serves mostly domestic travelers, handles about half the air traffic that nearby John F. Kennedy International Airport does. While LGA usually operates two runways, JFK operates four.
With LaGuardia down a runway, that means more congested tarmacs and less wiggle room for arrivals and departures.
There was no word on what caused the sinkhole. Port Authority sources said Wednesday that investigators were looking at many possibilities, including a fuel line tunneling project.
