Contractors will begin laying concrete for Sea-Tac Airport’s 8,500-foot third runway beginning in mid-July.

That date is about three weeks later than orginally planned, but the delay isn’t expected to materially affect the runway’s opening date, now scheduled for November next year.

The runway project from conception to completion will have taken some 15 years by the time the first plane lands on it next year.

A coalition of cities and neighborhood organizations challenged the runway project repeatedly in court, and the runway’s actual construction has taken more than three years.

The paving

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Though Northwest Airlines has canceled more than 10 percent of its flights nationwide over the last few days because of pilot shortages, weather and air traffic control problems, those problems haven’t spread to its Sea-Tac flights.

The airline has maintained its flight schedule here without resorting to outright cancellations.

According to records compiled by Flightstats.com, the Minneapolis-based airline has canceled none of its own flights from Sea-Tac this week and only one code-share flight, an Alaska Airlines flight to Anchorage today that carries passengers from Northwest, American and Continental as well as Alaska’s own.

Southwest Airlines, seeking to restart its profit growth engine, today added six new daily non-stop flights to its Seattle schedule including four daily flights to Denver.

The Dallas-based airline also added one additional daily roundtrip between Seattle and San Jose and Seattle and Sacramento in California.

The low-cost carrier trimmed its Seattle-Chicago schedule by one flight, leaving three round-trips daily.

The additions to Southwest Seattle schedule are among dozens of changes the airline made Wednesday. Those changes are aimed at returning Southwest to traditional profit growth.

The new flights will encounter plenty of competition.
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We posted two weeks ago that Starbucks would be expanding lunch offerings with items such as curried chicken and Asian sesame-noodle salads.

Now a story from Reuters fills in more of the lunchtime fare: a tomato mozzarella salad, a “fiesta salad” with chicken, corn and black beans, with regional fare to include albacore tuna penne, champagne pasta salad and bowtie pasta with goat cheese in addition to the curry chicken and sesame noodle salads.

Want a parfait? Starbucks also plans to start selling two yogurt-based ones, as well as a raspberry mocha Frappuccino and an iced raspberry mocha

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Remember that lawyer-rating site launched last month? Well, Avvo.com will have a lot fewer ratings given some changes being made by the Seattle company.

Now attorneys with only minimal info gathered from their bar association will have non-numbered ratings (no concern/attention) instead of a number that previously ranged from 1 to 10. The numbers will only come into play, said spokeswoman Paula Gottlob, when additional information is added, such as other accomplishments, publications, etc.

A lot of that info comes when lawyers claim their own profiles, something more than 2,500 have done, Gottlob said. The site also

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A new study commissioned by the State of Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory says a rail link between Alaska and the existing Canadian and U.S. rail network is financially feasible.

While such a new rail line would in large measure serve mining interests in the Yukon, Alaska and British Columbia, it would also potentially siphon off container traffic now moving through Puget Sound ports.

Don’t count on that competition soon, though. The preliminary price of the new line is $10.5 billion, and construction could take years even if the money were quickly available.

Making the rail line

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Four companies were recognized today for their business leadership in Pierce County at the annual Spotlight on Business Awards presented by Heritage Bank and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber.

They were:

Large business. Rainier Connect: A Tacoma telecommunications company offering local, long distance, cable television and high-speed Internet service.

Medium business. Forza Coffee Co.: A Gig Harbor coffee company expanding in the South Sound.

Small business. Three Chicks Catering: A catering company based in Tacoma that provides boxed lunches, party platters and banquet food.

Non profit. Fair Housing Center

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If your nest egg includes, let’s say, 100 share of Boeing stock worth about $9,500 at today’s selling prices, you’ll be getting a check from Boeing sometime in September for a grand total of $35.

That check is your share of Boeing’s new prosperity, a quarterly dividend of 35 cents a share.

The dividend is payable Sept. 7 to shareholders of record at the close of business Aug. 10.