Port of Ephrata to use FAA grant for runway rehab
Photo: Ephrata Airport manager Barbara Deycous and facilities and operations supervisor Kurt Oxos stand on Runwayy 11/29, which will be getting a face lift thanks to a grant from the FAA.
Crosswind runway 'critical to aviation operations'
An old airport runway is getting a facelift.
The Port of Ephrata recently received a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration in the amount of $2,316,518.
The grant money will be used to rehabilitate the Ephrata Airport's Runway 11/29 and connecting taxiway B-2.
"For several years, we've been working on finding the funding to rehabilitate Runway 11/29," said Barbara Deycous, general manager of the Ephrata Airport. "It's an old runway built in the 1940s that's beginning to deteriorate. We've been working with the FAA for probably about three years to find the funding. We put in the appropriate applications at the appropriate time, and were awarded the grant."
The FAA grant constitutes 95 percent of the project cost; the Port of Ephrata is committed to funding the remaining 5 percent.
"It is critical to our aviation operations, as it's our crosswind runway," Deycous said. "We have a little bit of wind in the Basin at times. A lot of our users are small aircraft; that makes it very important to have crosswind runways in those types of conditions."
Associated projects include replacing the Medium Intensity Runway Lighting System, installation of Runway End Identifier Lights on both runways and a Precision Approach Path Indicator for Runway 29.
Construction will begin about mid-July to avoid conflict with spring and summer aviation events. Deycous said the contractors, Basin Asphalt Company of Moses Lake, have been given 70 calendar days on the project.