FAA allocating $10 million for airport runway renovation
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The renovation of a diagonal runway at Pittsburgh International Airport, which is mostly used at night for noise abatement reasons, will be one of the first projects to receive federal stimulus funds for airports around the country.
The federal Department of Transportation yesterday announced that the Federal Aviation Authority will allocate $10 million to Pittsburgh International to repair runway 14-32, one of four commercial service runways at the airport, which serves about 9.8 million passengers a year.
With a total of 13 commercial airlines, Pittsburgh International provides 158 daily departures to 40 destinations.
The county airport in West Mifflin will receive $2 million to renovate a taxiway and relocate a ramp.
JoAnn Jenny, spokeswoman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, said the runway renovation at Pittsburgh International will include grading, paving, marking signs and lighting upgrades to the runway, which has been due for rehabilitation for a few years now.
"This will significantly improve the airfield safety. It's a project that we tried to do last year but we just didn't have funding for it. And so when the stimulus funding was announced we were very aggressive in submitting our proposal," said Ms. Jenny, adding that work on the runway will start in September.
Under the stimulus package, the FAA received $1 billion to allocate to qualified airports on a discretionary basis. Federal officials said that funding will be allocated based on a project priority system that addresses airport safety and security, infrastructure, runway safety, increased capacity and mitigation of environmental impacts.
The local projects are the first to be funded under the stimulus.
"The Recovery Act is helping us accelerate funding to key projects and invest in the continued safe and efficient operation of our airports," said Acting FAA Administrator Lynne Osmus.
U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, said projects like infrastructure redevelopment at both airports is the kind of reinvestment the country needs to support long-term economic growth.
"Pittsburgh International Airport is one of the lynchpins of our region's economy. Putting Western Pennsylvanians to work repairing this airport's infrastructure is just one of the many ways the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going to benefit our region both in the short term and in the long term," said Mr. Altmire.
Work at the county airport will start in July, where the airport authority is in the sixth of a seven-phased project to tear down and rebuild hangars, said Ms. Jenny.
The renovation of a taxiway and relocation of a ramp will expand the airport's west ramp for more hangars and aircraft movement, increasing the use and economic benefit of the airport in the region, said Bradley Penrod, executive director of the Allegheny County Airport Authority,
Under guidelines of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, entities like the airport authority are required to obligate or designate for use 50 percent of the stimulus within 120 days.
First Published March 13, 2009 12:00 am
