Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel urged major airlines squeezed by skyrocketing fuel prices to come to the table a year early and negotiate a fourth new runway at O’Hare Airport as part of a $7.3 billion plan to rebuild Chicago’s infrastructure and create 30,000 jobs.
“I’m announcing this when we have everything secure on the very day Washington is doing a 60-day extension on the highway bill. The last highway bill was 2005. I can’t let the city be held hostage to that dysfunction,” the mayor told the Chicago Sun-Times.