Regional airport work under way

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$7.5M project to help bring runway up to FAA safety standards

By Candace Sipos -- csipos@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- After months of planning and an extra four days of waiting because of this week's rain, Winchester Regional Airport officials have to wait no longer.

Rifenburg Construction workers headed out to the airport before 7 a.m. on Friday to start work on an over $7.5 million project.

Throughout the project, workers will replace the older 4,500 feet of the 5,500-foot-long main runway and improve airfield lighting. The current runway does not meet FAA safety standards mainly because it was supposed to have been designed with a crown in the middle to allow water to run off the sides, according to Renny Manuel, executive director of the Winchester Regional Airport Authority. Instead, this original runway, which was likely first paved in 1962, lies flat.

Manuel said she believes the construction company will be able to finish in 90 days, because Rifenburg Construction often builds runways and the company will receive a "substantial" financial penalty if workers don't finish on time, she said.

"The only thing we anticipate ... could occur is that the final markings on the runway, on the new pavement, we may do a stop-work order and paint the permanent ones in the spring," Manuel said. That would only be a two-day job, she added.

Manuel did express concern over more potential storms blowing through the East Coast, which could also cause officials to put in a stop-work order on the project. Every day that the construction goes on, the airport loses money. Fuel payments make up about 80 percent of the revenue budget for the airport, and Manuel estimated that the facility will lose about $125,000 just for the lack of fuel sales in 90 days.

But she believes it's worth the hassle.

"This will take care of the design problem and it will also document what's below the surface," Manuel said. "This will make it easier for us for maintenance, and it could be the last major capital improvement project that would impact users of the airport. ...We should be good for another 20 years."

On average, a paved runway should last about 20 years, she said.

Doug Duncan, chief pilot for Valley Proteins, which typically has two jets and a plane stationed at the airport, said he's excited for the improvement.

"It'll be nice to have a nice, smooth surface that sheds the water correctly," Duncan said. "It makes it nicer on the equipment."

Valley Proteins owns a building on the airport's property where it has been doing its airline operations since 1980. They moved their planes and workers to temporary residence at the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport in Martinsburg, W.Va., where Manuel said many of the bigger planes relocated.

Any plane weighing more than 12,500 pounds cannot use the taxiway as a temporary runway at Winchester Regional, so they have to find a new location for the next three months. The smaller planes are still stationed at the airport.

Danville Regional Airport is attempting to undergo a very similar, but more expansive, project. The $10.5 million project will not only involve reconstruction of the main runways but will also address the design deficiency that creates a sight obstruction for pilots.

"It's like a small hill was constructed during the World War II era, when the primary runway was originally constructed," said Marc Adelman, Danville's transportation services director. DRA will be shut down for 18 months, and it hasn't started construction yet because Congress hasn't released the funds, he said. Adelman hopes the bidding process will start in February or March.

Manuel, who has been working with Adelman throughout this process, said many regional airports like these two have struggled to keep up with runway-related FAA regulations.