Danbury Municipal Airport to get upgraded taxiway
DANBURY — The city hopes a $295,000 federal grant will offset the cost of a project to repair a taxiway at Danbury Municipal Airport.
The pavement is cracking and outdated on the taxiway that’s parallel to the airport’s main runway, said Mike Safranek, airport administrator. The taxiway runs east to west on the southern part of the airport and connects the fixed-base operators on the southern side to the main runway, he said.
Winter weather has caused the paving to deteriorate, he said. Safranek estimated the pavement hasn’t been touched in 25 to 30 years.
“The pavement is in bad shape,” he said.
Fixing the taxiway is on the airport’s master plan. It would require addressing about 130,000-square-feet of pavement. About 1,000 feet of the more than half-mile taxiway were rehabilitated about five to six years ago and won’t need to be redone, Safranek said.
Officials haven’t determined the full cost of the project yet because they don’t know if the runway needs to be rehabilitated or reconstructed. Rehabilitation could cost half a million dollars, while reconstruction could be “three times more expensive,” Safranek said.
In the next few weeks, an engineering firm, Hoyle, Tanner & Associates, will bore into the ground to collect samples that should determine which type of project is needed, he said.
“We’re hoping the sub base is going to be in good shape, and we can go ahead with the rehabilitation and not the reconstruction,” Safranek said.
He hopes construction could start in August or September. The airport works with the Federal Aviation Administration for approval.
Historically, the federal government paid 90 percent of the cost of airport projects, with the state covering 7.5 percent and the city taking on 2.5 percent, Safranek said. But a few years ago, Connecticut said it would cap funding at $40,000 for non-stateowned airports, putting an extra burden on the taxpayers, he said.
Safranek hopes to use the $295,000 grant from the federal infrastructure bill passed in November to take that burden off the city.
“I want to use that money to offset the loss that the state will no longer give us,” he said.
Danbury Municipal Airport is one of 11 airports in Connecticut expected to receive a combined $12.5 million from the Federal Aviation Administration in the first of a series of grants that will be distributed over the next five years.
The grants are expected to pay for various improvements to Bradley International Airport, which will get $45 million over five years, among other projects across the state.
Safranek hopes to get more federal money for this project and another in the future.
The airport aims to repave a secondary runway over the next couple years. This runway goes from north to south, while the primary runway goes from east to west.
The airport is in the middle of a study that could determine whether the project qualifies for funding from the FAA, Safranek said. That $180,000 study is paid for through grants, he said.
The study collects data on the force and direction of the wind, which determines how often planes take off from the runway, he said. The study also looks at trees or objects that obstruct the runway. The runway must meet certain criteria and usage to be eligible for the federal funding, Safranek said.
“The FAA looks at this very carefully,” he said.