Bill holds runway for BIA

BANGOR – The Bangor International Airport runway is in line for a $20 million reconstruction after Friday’s midnight passage of a $318 billion defense appropriation bill in the U.S. Senate.

The bill, now destined for a House-Senate conference committee, includes $10 million toward the cost of restoring the airstrip, the longest active runway east of the Mississippi River, according to BIA officials.

The remaining $10 million for the project already has been secured through the Federal Aviation Administration and city and state governments, airport officials said.

The three-year project’s inclusion in the military spending package came at the request of Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who petitioned Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, to add the runway plan as an amendment.

Collins on Monday said the Senate bill, which includes funding for 10 projects from Kittery to Presque Isle, “makes critical investments in a variety of projects important to our national defense and to the state of Maine.”

The runway’s connection with the Maine National Guard prompted the project’s addition to the appropriations bill, city officials said. Built in 1958, the runway serves the giant KC-135 tankers of the 101st Air Refueling Wing of the Maine Air National Guard as well as commercial aircraft.

In an October letter to Collins, Major Gen. Joseph E. Tinkham stressed the importance of the airport’s military use, writing that the runway repairs were “critical to the continued mission of readiness of the Maine Air National Guard.”

Under the plan, the runway’s width would be reduced from 300 feet to 200 feet – still wider than the standard 150-foot-wide runway, according to interim airport director Rebecca Hupp.

If the budget line makes it out of committee – a high probability, city officials said – the three-phase reconstruction project would begin in the spring of 2002. The airport will oversee the runway’s reconstruction. The project also will include upgrades to runway lighting and navigational aides for aircraft, Hupp said.

The relatively small appropriation by Capitol Hill standards has been nearly five years in waiting, with the state’s delegation working to secure the money.

Much of the work would take place between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. to accommodate air traffic during the construction. Commercial air traffic would not be affected, Hupp said.

Because of its size, BIA’s concrete runway, at 11,440-feet long, is designated as an emergency landing point for the space shuttle.