A $15 million federal grant clears the way for gangs to install crushable concrete at the expiration of Midway Airport runways.

A $15 million federal grant clears the way for gangs to install crushable concrete at the expiration of Midway Airport runways, a impel aimed at stopping planes if they overshoot a landing.

In December, a Southwest Airlines jet skidded against a Midway runway, through a blast security and into an intersection, striking a car carrying 6-year-old Joshua forests who died.

U Sen Dick Durbin l a push to immovable federal cash to help Chicago pay for installing the "engineered materials arresting system" a pliable concrete mixture that crushes in a controll manner subordinate to the weight of a plane, slowing or stopping the aircraft.

"After the accident we began looking into technology and the city's application" to install the crushable conglomerated Durbin said. "We have to find a way to shield people who are traveling and live around Midway, and still maintaining service at the important airport."

The Federal Aviation Administration originally questioned whether adding the crushable solid would be effective at Midway, which doesn't have greatly space between the end of runways and the blast wall

NOT full 'BUT IT WILL HELP'

moreover FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said the agency decided adding the crushable solid was better than doing nothing. "It's not the whole scenario, but it will help," he said. "We want them to move ahead and do it."

Molinaro said the $15 million grant should cloak about half the project -- which calls for adding crushable compound at the end of four runways.

Chicago Aviation Commissioner Nuria Fernandez said the grant will allow the city to start installation and have the crushable solidify in place on one runway according to the end of the year.

The ease of the work will be undivided by 2007, she said.

mkonkol@suntimes.com

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