Tue, Sep 21, 2010
Federal Government To Pay All But 5 Percent Of The Cost
The FAA has approved a plan to
extend the runway at Virginia Highlands Airport (KVJI) in Abingdon,
finding "no significant impact" for the project. The extension was
first proposed about 14 years ago, and local officials say that
raising the 5 percent local and state money necessary to go
with the 95% federal funds could take as much as a year, given the
economy.
Airport Manager Mickey Hines told the Tri-Cities
newspaper that it was not unusual for such projects to be 20 years
from inception to completion.
According to AirNav, the current runway is 4471 feet long and 75
feet wide. The uncontrolled airport is publicly owned by the
Virginia Highlands Airport Authority. There are 72 aircraft based
on the field. Five of those are multi-engine pistons and seven are
jets. There are also five helicopters and four ultralights. The
airport averages 68 operations per day according to 2008 data, the
latest available. 45% of that is transient GA, another 45% is local
GA. The operations are rounded out by nine percent air taxi and one
percent military operations.
The proposal is to extend the runway to 5,500 feet, making it
able to accommodate 75 percent of the large aircraft weighing
60,000 pounds or less. There would also be additional safety areas
constructed at each end of runway 6-24, and it would be widened 25
feet. The project would also require the re-location of State Route
611, according to documents on the airport website.
Hines said the next steps are land acquisition along with a
design and engineering study. No date has been set for the onset of
actual construction.
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