U.S. GRANT ON WAY FOR LAX PROJECTS.

Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will announce today that the city of Los Angeles will get a $43 million federal grant to help pay the $241 million cost of replacing a runway at LAX and soundproofing nearby homes.

Mineta and local officials are expected to make the announcement after touring the south runway at Los Angeles International Airport. Local officials would not provide details of Mineta's planned announcement.

But sources said $18 million of the grant will go to build a wider runway that can accommodate the new, larger A-380 Airbus planes. Another $15 million will be spent to soundproof homes in Inglewood and adjacent unincorporated areas, and $10 million will be used to buy land.

The grant will be the second of several federal payments as the city completes the runway expansion as part of the LAX master plan. The $4 billion plan is designed to limit passenger traffic to 78.9 million people a year while modernizing LAX and making it safer for the traveling public.

In August, the FAA awarded the city $38.8 million for the runway project after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made a personal appeal to Mineta, a former California congressman. At the time, officials said the federal government had made LAX one of its national priorities for improvements.

The contract for the work, expected to take 26 months, has been awarded to Tutor-Saliba Construction Corp. of Sylmar, and environmental reviews have been completed.

In addition to the runway, the project calls for construction of taxiways and navigational aids as well as structural improvements to the Sepulveda Boulevard tunnel.

Mineta aides said he also will be meeting with residents of homes that have been soundproofed through work paid for by the FAA to determine how well the program is working.

Rick Orlov, [phone]

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com