Noise level from airplanes has nearby residents in an uproar

Hundreds more airplanes are thundering over neighbors of the new south runway, and it could be just a hint of the uproar to come.

Maintenance shutdowns of the north runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport this month are funneling all air traffic to the controversial new runway on the airport’s south side, airport officials warned.

That means more airplanes are using the south runway during the day, and the normally quiet wee hours are interrupted by incoming jets — on a landing strip that already had homeown- ers from east to west screaming.

Dania Beach retiree Gary Luedtke said he was awakened early Wednesday by a 2:30 a.m. flight, even though he’s a sound sleeper.

“When in the shower, a room off the bedroom, in a closed shower stall, with water loudly splashing, the flights directly overhead drown out the shower’s noise level,’’ he wrote in an email to the Sun Sentinel.

The $800 million south runway typically carries about 30 percent of the airport’s 600 flights a day. When the north runway’s closed, it carries them all.

The closures, which started Monday and will continue periodically until May 15, allow in- spectors to decide if and when it will need to be rebuilt. That’s when things would get worse. A rebuilding of the north runway would require a full-time closure of up to 90 days, Aviation Director Kent George said. He hopes the work can be put off until 2018, when soundproofing of nearby homes is complete.

“If the runway is in good enough shape,’’ George said, “it is our desire to do that and not impact the people on the south runway any more than they’ve been impacted already.’’

Since the runway opened in September, complaints about noise began issuing from more than the usual Dania Beach