Dupage Policy Journal

The Elmhurst City Council discussed the decreased noise output from Chicago's International O'Hare Airport during its Feb. 21 meeting.

Elmhurst is adjacent to O'Hare, with one of the latter's runways pointed directly at the former. For a long time, the city has been struggling to deal with the noise and traffic from O'Hare, especially when a plane takes off from the nearby runway. Fortunately, Elmhurst Alderman Bob Dunn said that the Fly Quiet Committee, as well as O'Hare's recent modernization efforts, have helped to decrease the number of diagonal runways, which has reduced the noise directed at the city.

While the new east-west runways will increase noise levels in communities such as Wood Dale and Rosemont, as well as parts of Park Ridge, other communities, especially those south of the airport, will see a decrease. The runway directed at Elmhurst is one of only two remaining diagonal runways, and it will be used by departing flights.

"An interesting fact that was brought up in the last meeting was that O'Hare now is the only airport in the world that can have four simultaneous landings, you know, because of the configuration," said Dunn. "So that's pretty impressive."

A new study on noise and traffic levels extended the sound bubbles on O'Hare's east and west sides, focusing on the lower two runways aimed at Wood Dale and Norridge, but the bubble around Elmhurst has shrunk. O'Hare will also be enacting "quiet plans" and keeping its noise output between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. as low as possible. This move continues the trend of Elmhurst progressively getting quieter over the past several decades, which many hope will continue into the next decade of O'Hare's modernization efforts.