Just visible above the parked aircraft, a plane takes off Sunday from Albany Municipal Airport.
The runway at Albany Municipal Airport will get a new surface and new lights at both ends, the city council decided on Monday.
The council voted without dissent to award a contract for the project to Wildish Construction Co., Eugene. The contract amount is $484,211.
Together with engineering and related expenses, the entire project is expected to cost $700,000. Grants from the Federal Aviation Administration will cover most of the bill, with a state grant making up the rest except for the city’s contribution.
Transportation Manager Robb Romeo said the city’s share will be about $3,500, to be paid from the airport budget.
In a memo, Romeo wrote: “The project will provide rehabilitation of the Runway 16-34 pavement and a portion of the connector taxiways including removal of existing markings, crack sealing, surface seal coat, and new pavement markings. … In addition, the existing Runway 16 and Runway 34 REILs have reached the end of their design life and require repairs by the City.”
REIL stands for “runway end indicator lights.”
The runway was built in 1959. The surface was last refreshed in 2010.
The council did not debate the staff’s request to approve the construction contract. Nobody mentioned that the council has commissioned a firm of consultants to study the future of the airport and what might be done with it.
The firm, ECOnorthwest, said in a preliminary report last December that the airport was “financially unsustainable.” The consultants’ final report with recommendations is due at any time. (hh)
Man, if only it was that easy to get our streets paved.
Albany International -the Little Airport that could.
Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that Mr. Hering was trumpeting the storyline that some nefarious Developers were eyeballing the airport property for a future Tower Apartment Gulag? Suddenly, the Feds are giving cash away like drunken sailors in order to repave the existing infrastructure. Something’s not adding up.
Certainly, Hasso did not advocate for the closure of the airport, although a good argument could be made for that idea. However, Hering’s drum beating on the topic raised the ire and the blood pressures of countless Albanians, which is good for the Hering algorithm but perhaps not so good for community coherence. In the end, perhaps the lesson learned is – watch what people do. Don’t simply listen to what people say.
They pave a street; they tear up a street. Your tax money at work. The good news: it didn’t cost 22 million.
When I read the headline I thought, “Wait – aren’t they gunning to close that?”
Fairly typical of Albany and Oregon to do something like that, sadly.
At least “going airborne” at the Albany Airport is a good thing. Most Albanyites who go airborne have forgotten to slow down on one of the neighborhood streets and hit a deep pothole at too high of a speed!!!
Forget the paving, look at how they are parking those small airplanes on top of the wings of bigger airplanes. I think the Albany airport really is conducting some sort of miracle airplane parking operation that perhaps might save general aviation and transportation situations around the country more than any of us realize. Perhaps this was an unknown consequence of paving or maybe this is just an everyday occurrence at our local municipal airport. who would have thought ?
Stunning, months ago the mayor wanted a consultant to look at what to do with the airport and possibly close it. Oops it’s federal money so we can waste it, like monopoly money. Should send Shawn Duffy our transportation secretary an email and tell him so he axes the grant.
Exactly. The attitude of local & state govt. & many civilians that have been on the public dole for generations think that IF it comes from the Feds, it doesn’t cost anything.
How many govt. employees (from the feds to local) does it take to simply process grants? What % of the grants are spent before it ever reaches the end use?