Runway paving to close airport
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According to airport manager James Stephens, the money will be coming from a 90-10 matching federal grant administered through the state by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Grant funds will cover approximately $714,000 with the remaining $79,000 coming from the airport. That money was set aside in the 2003-2004 budget and has already been paid.
Local paving company APAC-Tennessee, Inc. turned in the winning bid and will be performing the work. Airport officials said they were pleased the jobs would remain local.
Stephens, who took over management of the facility in January, says former airport manager Kevin Bishop and interim manager John Dockum were instrumental in the project, which has been in the works for more than a year.
According to Dockum, who is now assistant manager, it all started as an effort to get the runway cracks repaired.
“On our general maintenance of the airport runway we do this inspection routinely for cracks,” Dockum said. “Cracks will develop in there, and when they get so bad, TDOT, the FAA division, wants us to notify them. Well we called them out, and they came out and did an inspection of the cracks. They came back and said, ‘We think you qualify for a runway overlay, because the cracks are so bad.'”
After that initial inspection, the FAA came back and did a more thorough study and informed airport officials they did indeed qualify for a runway overlay. The new plan will call for a substantially more involved process, but will leave the airstrip in pretty much new condition.
The last runway overlay was done in 1983, with an estimated life of 20 years. The last operation to repair cracks was done in 1991. No work will be done on the adjoining taxi-way since repairs have been done on that section recently.
Though the project will require the airport to be shut down while the work is performed, Stephens said it is hard to tell at this point how long that will be. There will be a pre-construction meeting the second week in August, at which time the logistics and start date will be discussed.
Flyers will be apprised of the closure using something called a “Notice to Airmen” which will be filed in Nashville, according to Stephens. Then as pilots prepare flight plans, they will be notified of the local runway being shut down.
Both Stephens and Dockum are excited the project will soon be under way.
“It’s great. This is one of the things we need to keep this airport rolling,” Stephens said. “We’ve got some plans for other things down the road, but that’s the one that needed to be done now. And that’s just part of having an airport. If you don’t have a runway, you don’t have an airport. It’s as simple as that.”