Port seeks to level main runway

MOSES LAKE — There’s a hump in the middle of the Grant County International Airport’s main runway.

And it needs to go away. The Federal Aviation Administration says so.

So commissioners with the Port of Moses Lake on Monday unanimously approved around $56,000 for an engineering study to determine what it will take to remove the roughly five-foot-high hump, which is currently blocking the line of sight from one end to the other of the two-and-a-half-mile-long runway 14L/32R.

According to Jeffrey Bishop, the port’s executive director, the work is planned for 2020, and will involve ripping up and regrading around 4,000 feet of runway.

In addition, the port will also be replacing lighting and signage the entire length of the main runway.

The length of time needed to complete the project would depend on which runway surface the port choses — asphalt or concrete.

As for the reason the hump exists, Bishop says history is unclear whether the Air Force created it on purpose to assist fully laden B-52 bombers take off or simply paved over the terrain as it was in the early 1950s. Commissioners also approved a $93,000 study that will allow it to seek Air Force funding to build hangar space big enough for a C-17 transports or the KC-46 tanker, as well as space for billets and administration.

The study is being paid for by a grant from the state of Washington.

“We need a study, but the Air Force won’t pay for it.” Bishop said.

Several Air Force installations eying the port as a temporary alternate site for operations have offered to shepherd the port’s application, Bishop said.

The port is also considering what it would take to widen the other major runway, 4-22, which is not quite wide enough to accommodate modern, four-engine jets like the Air Force’s venerable KC-135 tankers or Boeing’s 747 jetliner.

Improving that runway would also broaden the port’s ability to handle air traffic and attract customers, Bishop said.