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Bradford County Airport awarded $250K for runway extension
Published: December 25, 2009
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share thisU.S. Rep. Chris Carney has secured $250,000 in federal funds, which will be used to design the planned 700-foot extension of the runway of the Bradford County Airport in Towanda Township, the manager of the airport said this week.
The Bradford County Airport Authority is planning to extend the airport's 4,300-foot runway to 5,000 feet, said Carl Lafy, manager of the Bradford County Airport.
The extension is needed because many corporate aircraft cannot land on runways that are less than 5,000 feet, due to stipulations in the insurance policies taken out by companies that own the aircraft, Lafy said.
Besides bringing in more corporate aircraft, additional kinds of aircraft will be able to land at night at the airport, once the extension is constructed, he said.
The extension "is really for the safety of any aircraft" during landing or take-off, he said.
"If an aircraft gets to takeoff speed, and something goes wrong, they will need room to stop," he explained.
A 5,000-foot runway "is the ultimate distance (planned) for the Bradford County Airport, in accordance with the master plan for the airport," Lafy said.
The extension will be designed next year, he said, adding that he hopes the extension will be constructed the year after that.
The extension would be added onto the southern end of the runway, Lafy said.
Lafy said the $250,000 allocation will be enough to pay for the design of the extension as well as "anything else that is specified in the ($250,000) grant."
He said he had not yet seen the paperwork on the allocation of the $250,000 grant, which would specify what else the money could be used for.
Lafy said the notification that the airport has been awarded $250,000 came through phone calls he has had over the last week with Carney and Carney's communications director, Josh Drobnyk.
Further government funds will need to be secured to pay for the construction of the extension, he said. He said he did not have an estimate yet for what it will cost to construct the extension.
The airport used to have a 3,020-foot runway, but it was replaced with the current 4,300-foot runway eight years ago, Lafy said.
The $250,000 was included in an appropriations bill for a number of federal departments, including the federal Department of Transportation, which was passed earlier this month, Drobnyk said.
The $250,000 "has been appropriated and signed into law," Drobnyk said.
Projects such as the runway extension are funded using 95 percent federal funds, 2 1/2 percent state funds and 2 1/2 percent local funds, Lafy said.
The federal funds come from taxes on gas used in the aviation industry, jet fuel and airline tickets, Lafy said.
James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.
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