Airport’s $7M project is nearly done

After undergoing $7 million in rehabilitation repairs during the first part of the summer, Texarkana Regional Airport’s primary runway is now back in full service.

On Wednesday, Airport Director Mark Mellinger told Airport Authority Board members that Runway 422, which is about 6,600 feet long, is 99.9 percent rehabilitated and only lacks a couple of nighttime light fixtures being raised.

The rehabilitation included overlaying and reinforcing both the runway’s surface and subsurface for the first time in 15 to 20 years.

The rehab’s financing, which came from 90 percent federal grant funds, will give the runway at least another 16 years of life before another rehab might be necessary, said Airport Manager Russell Henderson.

Mellinger said the Arkansas Department of Aeronautics will reimburse the airport for the remaining 10 percent, or about $700,000.

He added that overall airport air operations are up about 10 percent from last year—owing in large measure to the runway’s repair and reopening.

A significant part of air operations include C-130 military cargo flights from Little Rock’s Jackson Air Force Base.

Besides the runway’s reopening, Mellinger told board members he is planning to discuss funding engineer-

ing design work for a proposed new passenger terminal with officials at the Federal Aviation Administration’s Fort Worth, Texas-based regional headquarters. Airport officials will have to submit a federal grant application as soon as possible to get the overall project launched. Design work is scheduled to start next month as part of the airport’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget.

In other business, Mellinger told board members repairs to the Airframe and Power Plant School are now complete— an effort that cost slightly more then $70,000. At least 90 percent of that bill will be reimbursed by the Arkansas Department of Aeronautics.