Tue, Jan 25, 2011
New Building Completed At St. Louis Downtown Airport
The FAA celebrated the completion of an Aircraft Rescue and
Firefighting building at St. Louis Downtown Airport, East St.
Louis, IL, paid for with $4.7 million in American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act funds. "This new facility in East St. Louis is one
of the many Recovery Act projects that are helping make important
safety improvements at airports around the country," said U.S.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, announcing the opening
Monday.
Recovery Act funds paid the full cost of building the structure,
which will house employees and a fire and rescue vehicle. FAA
regulations require airports with unscheduled passenger-carrying
aircraft of at least 31 passenger seats to have a fire and rescue
facility on airport property. St. Louis Downtown Airport now
receives charter operations by unscheduled air carriers and
commuter service about three times per week and was required to
build this facility.
"Airports need to be prepared for any emergency, and this
facility will help ensure the safety of passengers and flight
crews," said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.
The St. Louis Downtown Airport is the third-busiest Illinois
airport in number of operations, behind only Chicago O'Hare
International Airport and Chicago Midway Airport. In fiscal
year 2010, the airport had more than 111,000 takeoffs and
landings.
Nationwide, $1.3 billion in Recovery Act money has been made
available for both airport improvement projects and air traffic
control facility and system upgrades. Because of low
construction bids for projects, more Recovery Act dollars were
available for additional facilities and equipment as well as
airport projects. These Recovery Act grants have been
distributed to airports that serve commercial passengers, cargo and
general aviation.
FMI: www.faa.gov
More News
Omnidirectional Approach Lighting System ODALS consists of seven omnidirectional flashing lights located in the approach area of a nonprecision runway. Five lights are located on t>[...]
"Polaris Dawn, the first of the program’s three human spaceflight missions, is targeted to launch to orbit no earlier than summer 2024. During the five-day mission, the crew >[...]
Also: 1800th E-Jet, Uncle Sam Sues For Landing Gear, Embraer Ag Plane, Textron Parts A friend of the family reported that Lt. Col. (Ret.) Richard Glenn Rutan flew west on Friday, M>[...]
Also: Virgin Galactic, B-29 Doc to Allentown, Erickson Fire-Fighters Bought, FAA Reauthorization After dealing with a big letdown after the unexpected decision by Skyreach to disco>[...]
“Our aircrews are trained and capable of rapidly shifting from operational missions to humanitarian roles. We planned to demonstrate how we, and our BORSTAR partners, respond>[...]