The Rhode Island Airport Corporation board yesterday added another alternative to the possibilities for extending the runway at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick.

The newest alternative would position an 8,700-foot runway farther south than previously proposed, eliminating the need to move heavily traveled Airport Road or Route 37. A related proposal would alter the design of the airport’s secondary runway to do away with a 1,000-foot stretch that would have pushed the so-called “crosswind” landing strip toward Post Road.

The new designs would cut the project’s effect on the roads and neighborhoods surrounding the airport while still providing the room needed to accommodate the aircraft used for international and West Coast flights, said the airport corporation’s new president.

The corporation’s board yesterday approved adding the designs to proposals now under review by the Federal Aviation Administration as part of a study of the project’s environmental impact.

“By shifting the extension from the north to the south at the same 8,700-foot length, it appears we can eliminate community and environmental impacts to a much greater extent than any of the other proposed options,” said Kevin A. Dillon, the corporation’s president and chief executive officer.

Of the various proposed plans for expanding the main runway at Green, just two remain: one longer, one shorter.

One alternative calls for expanding the runway from its current 7,166 feet to 9,350 feet at a total price of roughly $538 million, including costs associated with buying 152 houses and 71 businesses, infrastructure changes and construction.

A runway of more than 9,000 feet would accommodate larger planes and allow for international flights and nonstop service to the West Coast from Green.

A second, scaled-back alternative, calls for expanding the runway to 8,700 feet at a total cost of $469 million and taking fewer homes and businesses, according to consultants for the FAA.

Both alternatives initially required swallowing Airport Road, a heavily traveled east-west artery.

To compensate for that loss, the FAA has proposed moving Airport Road farther north, starting where Route 37 now ends, at Post Road, and running east to Warwick Avenue.

It appears from a statement put out yesterday by the airport corporation that it is now considering a plan for the second alternative it believes will avoid changes to Airport Road and lessen the objections of city officials, residents and businesses.

“While we must ensure that our airport infrastructure is sufficient to allow proper airport growth and development, quality of life issues, that are so important to our neighbors, are of equal concern,” Dillon said.

Under the new plan, the main runway would be extended to the south, forcing a reconfiguration of Main Avenue, Dillon said.

“It does require Main Avenue to be altered around the end of the runway,” Dillon said. “It takes far less property than the alternative to the north.”

There is some indication the new alternative offers something of value to the City of Warwick, which has fiercely opposed Green’s expansion. That opposition, thus far, has been unable to derail the corporation’s plans.

“I feel that the 8,700-foot option should go forward for study,” said Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian. “It is less intrusive than the Route 37 proposal and, while it raises some new concerns, it does address some long-standing issues.”

The mayor elaborated on his statement in a telephone interview.

“That [initial] proposal creates major problems for the city,” Avedisian said. “Environmentally, it’s bad; it also takes an awful lot of property.”

The new proposal, he said, “still leaves the question of how many homes would have to go.”

Environmental and “quality-of-life” concerns would also have to be addressed, he said.

Joseph. J. Solomon, Warwick’s City Council president, said a priority for him is a survey of city residents that would serve as a “baseline” for determining whether the airport’s current operation affects their health and how a runway expansion might change their medical conditions.

“To say the airport is not an economic engine for the City of Warwick or the State of Rhode Island would be a fallacy,” Solomon said. “We just have to balance the health and safety issues.”

In his statement, Avedisian acknowledged Dillon’s “willingness to address those issues we have advocated.”

An 8,300-foot alternative for the runway remains the city’s preferred alternative, Avedisian said.

As for the secondary runway, the latest design would include installing an “engineered-material arresting system” at both ends of the landing strip instead of just on the south end.

Doing that would “eliminate a lot of that intrusion on the Post Road end,” Dillon said, and reduce the need to acquire land for the airport expansion project.

pgrimald@projo.com