By Howard Greninger, The Tribune-Star
howard.greninger@tribstar.com
TERRE HAUTE - Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field will receive $817,000 in additional economic recovery funds from the Federal Aviation Administration, enabling officials to complete a rehabilitation of the airport's main runway earlier than expected.
The federal agency reported Thursday that four Indiana airports will share another $4.4 million, with the largest amount, at $2.2 million, going to Mount Comfort Airport, about 10 miles east of Indianapolis, according to the Associated Press.
The Gary/Chicago International Airport will receive $1 million for fencing, while Delaware County-Johnson Field will receive $400,000 for runway lighting.
Early this month, Terre Haute airport officials announced they had received $1.9 million in federal stimulus funds from the FAA allowing them to start in May on a runway rehabilitation project of more than $10 million.
The airport had received $8.129 million since 2008 from the FAA for the runway, a project officials initially had expected to take three years. Now with the additional $817,000, the project can be completed in a year, said Darryl Huyett, president of the Terre Haute Airport Authority, which oversees the finances of the airport.
"We had broken the runway project down into three phases and we were about $800,000 short of doing phase three," Huyett said Thursday. "This allows us to do the last 1,500 to 2,000 feet of the runway. We had asked for the additional funds and were hopeful we might get it, so this is good because it reduces the amount of down time we will have on the runway. We can get it done all at the same time."
Runway 5/23 is the longest of three at the airport at 9,020 feet. The runway, with required pavement overruns in the event of an aircraft emergency, is actually 11,300 feet in length. The entire runway will have three inches of its surface milled, then five inches of new asphalt will be added. The extra height will allow the runway to match new 12-foot paved shoulders, which currently are turf.
The project also includes new electrical lighting and fixtures along the runway. Work is to start May 4 and is expected to be completed by the end of November, said design engineer Ken Ross, of NGC Corp., an Indianapolis engineering firm for the project.