Old Town airport gets grant for upgrades

OLD TOWN – The Old Town Regional Airport has received a federal grant for more than half a million dollars that will allow it to renovate some areas of its runways while helping with regional economic development efforts.

The $535,619 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation will go toward refurbishing a runway and two of the airport’s safety turnout areas and making changes to the runway indicator lights system, said city public works director David Wight.

“We’ll be able to accomplish what we hope to do for that amount of money,” Wight said.

U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud announced the grant Monday evening.

The safety turnouts are areas where planes can pull off if another aircraft is taking off or landing.

Runway 422 will be repaved and the turnouts on Runways 422 and 1230 will be renovated. The Runway 422 turnout will be tied into the planned Airport Commerce Park at DeWitt Field, a business park that will house a low-impact industry, high-technology area. Connecting the runway to the business park is key, Wight said, because a plane can taxi from the runway area to the area that will hold the offices.

The runway indicator lights system will be updated and moved as part of the grant.

Construction will begin as soon as the money reaches the city, Wight said. The paperwork should be done by next Tuesday, he added.

Maine Earth of Hermon won the contract from the city. Any money left over in the grant will be used to seal cracks on other runways.

Wight said the city’s next round of grant applications for the airport could include a request for money to build parallel taxiways so planes wouldn’t have to travel on the main runways.

“This really finishes it for us for a couple of years,” Wight said of the grant.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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