Tighter Fence to Secure Perimeter at LAX

The city plans to beef up security around Los Angeles International Airport’s perimeter by installing motion detection technology that will help police discern whether an animal, person or big rig is tangling with the heavy chain-link fence that surrounds the facility.

This new system, together with closed-circuit television cameras, more intense lighting and a concrete barrier to prevent vehicles from crashing through the bottom of the fence, will be installed at LAX starting early next year.

Perimeter fencing is to be reinforced in a further attempt to prevent attacks on the world’s fifth-busiest airport.

“Our goal is to make LAX the safest airport we can,” said Mayor James K. Hahn, who was forced several times to pause during a news conference Friday as jets landed and took off nearby on the airport’s busy northern runways.

The first phase of the improvements will cost $15 million and will upgrade eight miles of fencing on the facility’s western and northern edges by Christmas 2003.

Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport and Miami International Airport have installed similar systems, which are based on a design used for maximum-security fencing in Israel.

A cable attached to the top of the new 8-foot-high fence will help police detect activity near the perimeter. An object that strikes the fence will disrupt a low-voltage current in the cable, sending a signal to the nearest camera. The camera will turn and focus on the intruder.

“The system is sensitive enough to differentiate between a fox, a soccer ball or a person climbing the fence,” said Thomas E. Day, a consultant at Bechtel/JGM, a company hired by the Airport Commission to study security at LAX after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“What a great help to overworked police sitting in the monitoring station to know what is out there.”

The changes are meant to protect vulnerable spots on the airport’s perimeter, even though the existing 5-foot-high fence meets guidelines of the Federal Aviation Administration, city officials said.

Enhanced perimeter security at LAX will also include construction of a paved road adjacent to the fence to provide police with better access, and of a series of 16-foot-high gates at airfield entrances.

Two of the gates will be installed at each of the four entry points. Airfield visitors will enter through the first gate, which will close behind their vehicles. Guards will check the visitors’ credentials before opening the second gate.

In the first phase of the project, fencing that faces Westchester Parkway on the airport’s north side and Pershing Drive along the facility’s western edge will be replaced.

The second phase will be considerably smaller and involve portions of fence along Imperial Highway and Sepulveda Boulevard.

Workers will start building the new fence by sinking a concrete barrier 4 feet into ground. This barrier will extend several feet above ground, and the fence, with mesh openings of 2 inches or smaller, will be installed on top of it. Six strands of barbed wire, on V-shaped brackets with three strands on either side, will be on top of the fence.

Surveillance cameras and lights will be installed on posts every 400 feet, about 10 feet behind the fence.

Airport officials said Friday that they hope the promise of improved perimeter security will entice wary travelers back to LAX.

“It’s important to keep the public informed about these security enhancements,” said Paul Green, the airport agency’s chief operating officer.

“So all those folks who have occasion to visit and work at the airport will feel a greater level of comfort.”