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Regional airport plans continued improvements

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com 

A new paved runway and new taxiway could be in the future for the Northeast Iowa Regional Airport, if funding comes together as hoped.

The North Cedar Aviation Authority, which controls the airport just east of Charles City, heard presentations Wednesday afternoon by two firms that would like to be the airport’s official consultant to help with such projects.

One presentation was from Clapsaddle-Garber Associates (CGA) of Marshalltown, which has been the airport’s consultant since the early 2000s, and the other was from Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. (SEH), of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Kip Hauser, an aviation authority member, said the Federal Aviation Administration requires airports to review their consultant choice about every five years and that time is now for the Charles City regional airport.

Airports are required to have certified consultants to help with engineering, design, planning and other aspects of their capital improvement programs.

Projects that are upcoming in the next five-year plan period for the Northeast Iowa Regional Airport include a new paved taxiway for the main 4,000-foot paved runway at the airport.

The current taxiway is actually a former asphalt runway that only goes about half the length of the paved runway and is too close to the runway, said aviation authority Chairman Jeff Sisson.

An approximate timetable for that project is the year 2020, he said.

The new taxiway would extend about half the length of the runway and be funded at 90 percent of its cost by the FAA under a plan that has been approved for design work, Sisson said.

To be built the full length of the existing runway, the new taxiway would need to qualify for federal supplemental funding. An extra billion dollars was allocated for supplemental aviation funding over the summer, but airports across the country will try to get a portion of it, so the competition will be intense.

If it qualifies for the supplemental funding, the project would be funded at 100 percent, Sisson said.

The other project, further into the future, would be extending and paving a current crosswind grass runway. That project is projected for about 2022, and would require purchasing more land to extend the strip from its current 2,600 feet to become another 4,000-foot runway.

A paved crosswind runway would give aircraft more takeoff and landing options, because pilots always prefer to take off and land going into the wind to reduce the speed and distance required.

Sisson said these projects are just part of a continued process of maintaining and improving the airport, including about $3.5 million in paving, hangar, other building and other projects in about the past dozen years since the airport changed from a municipal airport to a regional airport and control changed from a city airport commission to the North Cedar Aviation Authority.

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