A new round of federal funding could speed the Columbia-Marion County Airport expansion to finish by 2019, a couple of years ahead of schedule.
Engineer Jeff Dungan told the Columbia Board of Aldermen recently that the Federal Aviation Administration informed them that $1 billion has been moved to airport infrastructure.
“They are really determined to let this project in Columbia be one of the first that utilizes some of that money. This would speed this project up and basically finish it next year. Instead of being finished in 2020 or 2021, it could be finished in 2019,” he said.
The multi-million dollar project is designed to lengthen the main runway to allow for larger corporate aircraft to land and take off. The hope is that the expansion could help with industrial development in Marion County.
It was originally slated as a five-year project and is in year two now. The project is funded 90 percent by the FAA, 5 percent by the state and 5 percent local.
Dungan said there is about $5 million more in construction to be done at the airport, and the new federal grant would be 100 percent funded, requiring no local match.
“It’s a good opportunity for us. The Airport Authority is going to do everything that it can to stay in line for that,” he said. “We hope that in October we’ll be able to secure that grant money to finish the project by the end of next year. It’s ambitious, but that’s the hope.”
So far, about $2 million has been spent on the project, and they’ve been able to get grants to cover the local match, Dungan said.
This year’s project will relocate Airport Road, and properties around the airport have been purchased.
“They will remove the homes that were purchased last year,” Dungan said. “It’s about a $2 million project with the local match about $100,000. We have applied again for an MDOT Multi-Modal grant for that. It’s the same grant we’ve received three times in the past. This would keep that local match from having to be put out there. We’re hopeful that this will happen again. We will know in a few months.”
