Abstract: |
The Lake Erie Regional Transportation Authority was created by the Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Board of Commissioners in 1972 to
study the need, feasibility, and location for a new international airport for the Cleveland service area. Urged on by the
Greater Cleveland Growth Association, LERTA proposed the construction of a 13-mile stone-and-sand dike in Lake Erie as the
site for the new airport. Despite an extensive public relations campaign, public opposition to the project was immediate and
continuous. In 1977, the FAA determined that Cleveland did not need a new airport and in 1978 discontinued its support for
the jetport-in-the-lake project. The collection consists of administrative records (i.e. LERTA formation and dissolution
records, minutes of the Board of Trustees, initial planning grant proposals, citizen participation records, intergovernmental
and departmental relations activity, etc.), consultant selection records, airport feasibility studies, and publicity and public
relations records. The collection contains detailed engineering proposals for large-scale off-shore airport construction,
and public opposition to such a project. Also included are weather studies of Lake Erie and the Cleveland area.
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