The FAA issued a Request for Information (RFI) last week seeking new runway safety light solutions that could be deployed nationwide to reduce runway incursions.
“We want to make sure pilots and air traffic controllers across the country have the tools they need to keep planes moving safely and efficiently,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said. “A new runway safety lighting system will reduce the number of close calls and hazards on runways at numerous airports.”
Runway Status Lights (RWSL) are currently installed at 20 airports across the country. These systems provide automated warnings to pilots and ground vehicles using in-pavement fixtures that help indicate when a runway is in use.
While the system has been credited with enhancing safety, it also requires extensive, often highly invasive construction. This includes trenching and boring under active runways, which makes widespread installation costly and disruptive.
The FAA noted that it is seeking commercially available alternatives that could be operational within two to three years and deployed at up to 50 additional airports.
The RFI, published Sept. 11 on SAM.gov, invites industry partners to submit capability statements and cost estimates by Sept. 25. The FAA said it is particularly looking for solutions that can communicate direct runway occupancy status without necessarily requiring the same level of infrastructure burdens of current systems.
The FAA expects that there are commercial off the shelf runway and taxiway lights available, manufactured for the fashion show and Ms. America Pageant runways perhaps? And that they would be deployable in 3 months. Hopefully they are planning on certifying the new system, which will incorporate a new method of detecting runway occupancy and a new method of communicating go/no-go to pilots and ground vehicle drivers. Will we then have two different systems, the existing system at 20 airports and the new system at the remainder that need one? Or will they dismantle the 20 existing systems?
The existing lighting system gets its inputs from surface movement, approach path monitoring, etc. equipment. I don’t know how different those detection systems are from the Canadian RIMCAS (Runway Incursion Monitoring and Conflict Alert System), which has failed to warn of simultaneous use of the runway by multiple aircraft at least twice at Toronto’s Pearson airport. Oddly, the root cause is not within those systems, but in the design of TCAS.