The Mandan Municipal Airport Authority will overhaul its runway with a $4.25 million resurfacing project by the 2013 construction season, but it will mean at least a month-long closure to air traffic during the six-month process.
Airport manager Jim Lawler said the city has received a $230,000 Federal Aviation Administration grant to design the upgrades. Building specs should be ready by February or March.
About 95 percent of the construction cost will be paid through federal funds. The state and the city is expected to split the remaining 5 percent match. "We'll remove the existing runway and possibly replace that with concrete. That's still being decided," Lawler said. "It will get a new lighting system for the runway and taxi-way. We'll install new controls for the lighting."
He said the airport now has a 4,400-foot asphalt runway and a 2,900-foot unimproved gravel road for air operations. At some point during the construction, both will have to be shut down for a month or more, according to Lawler. "It will be a hard hit," he said. "We're one of the top small aviation airports in the state."
The airport has 15,000 operations per year, he said -- landings or takeoffs of twin engine and single-engine planes. Smaller plane operators use it for self-service fueling (credit cards), family trips, hunting parties, freight and business trips, Lawler said. Seventy smaller aircraft are based there -either in hangars or parked outside. An air mechanic and a crop sprayer lease space there.
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Lawler said it is simply time to replace the aging surface. "It has to be done. It's 33 years old. By the time we get started, it might be 35 years old," he said.
Start of the project depends on when federal funding is approved for the work. If not appropriated before the spring of 2012, he expects resurfacing will be pushed back to 2013. "We're going to need the full construction season to get it done -- spring, fall and summer," he said.
"It has many cracks. We've tried to keep the ruts to a minimum. We've patched it as we can," he said
Lawler said the short-term resurfacing plans don't call for a longer runway at this time. "We do have it in our master plan if we need to. We have purchased 50 more acres to protect ourselves from development," he said.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
