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The north / south runway at KLGB were recently closed. Does anyone know the reason for the runway closures?

KLGB Airport Diagram

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    $\begingroup$ I'm looking at the notams and it has 12/30 closed from 09/13/2016 to 09/17/2016. The notam doesn't say why, but that its only closed from 0500 to 1315 daily for 4 days. A little more searching shows that they've been doing it in pieces since at least July, and it looks like runway maintenance/construction. On the FAA site there is a link to a "Construction Diagram" but the link is broken. Looks like they are also working on the ALS for a couple of those days. $\endgroup$
    – Ron Beyer
    Sep 11, 2016 at 4:01
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    $\begingroup$ @RonBeyer -- the querent's referring to the 16/34s not 12/30 $\endgroup$ Sep 11, 2016 at 4:13
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    $\begingroup$ That may make more sense, I didn't notice it because it's not notam'd out. lbflying.com/files/lbaa2008-2.pdf suggests that they have closed it because of a geometry issue. The runways were unlit, in need of repair, and not frequently used. It also added a lot of confusion to the already complex airport movement areas, so they were closed after a 2 year study. $\endgroup$
    – Ron Beyer
    Sep 11, 2016 at 4:25
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    $\begingroup$ So I did 35 hours of my flight training from this airfield in '01 and not once in 4 weeks did I hear or see of the N/S runways being used. You just bought back some fond memories of Daugherty $\endgroup$
    – Jamiec
    Sep 12, 2016 at 8:33

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From a Long Beach Post article:

The two runways in question have not been in operation for a number of years and the study ultimately found that removing them will create a safer and more efficient airport for the City of Long Beach.

The removal will allow for new taxiways and possibly opportunities for economic development.

It seems by checking the summer (June) wind rose for Long Beach—shown below—the longest runway 30-12 has the best wind averages, even when the southerly wind dominates the month. It would be cheaper to use than to maintain two old ailing runways.

enter image description here
(Source) 30-12 runway drawn over the wind rose.

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  • $\begingroup$ What about the summer wind rose? EDIT: It appears that the summer one is the one you have there; the December rose looks considerably different from that. $\endgroup$
    – Vikki
    May 1, 2018 at 17:27
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    $\begingroup$ @Sean - fixed, thanks. $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    May 1, 2018 at 22:26

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