Aviation authority adds runway project to regional airport’s capital plan

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The North Cedar Aviation Authority took action this week to add a major runway project to its five-year capital improvement plan.

The board passed a motion to proceed with the plan that had been discussed at a workshop meeting two weeks ago to prioritize lengthening the Northeast Iowa Regional Airport’s main runway to better accommodate jet traffic.

A project to pave the existing sod crosswind runway had been on a preliminary five-year plan, but airport manager Bill Kyle said extending the current 4,000-foot runway to 5,000 or even 5,500 feet would be a higher priority.

The five-year plan was developed by Joe Roenfeldt, project engineer with Clapsaddle-Garber Associates Inc. of Marshalltown, the airport’s engineering consultant, based on the workshop discussion by the aviation authority.

The plan covers the fiscal years from 2021-22 to 2025-26, and Roenfeldt said the airport’s five-year plan was due to the Federal Aviation Administration by the middle of next month.

Aviation authority Chairman Jeff Sisson said he was ready to go ahead and approve it at the meeting Wednesday and have Roenfledt submit it, and authority members Carl “Kip” Hauser and Cathy McGregor agreed.

The plan calls for land acquisition in fiscal year 2025, which would begin July 1, 2024, at a cost of $6 million, and grading and ground work to widen and extend the runway in fiscal year 2026, which would begin July 1, 2025.

A major expense — the paving — isn’t on this five-year plan, but Sisson said after the meeting that it would likely be in fiscal year 2027, which would begin July 1, 2026.

Total cost would be about $12 million, with 90% of that expected to be paid by the FAA and 10% — $1.2 million — paid locally, Sisson said.

“The 10% match will be our biggest challenge,” he said.

Past airport projects have included additional funding from Charles City and Floyd County to help cover local matches, and the aviation authority has also borrowed its share of local matches for projects, such as through low-interest loans from Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative.

Sisson said the project will need justification to be approved by the FAA, and “the trend at the airport is bigger airplanes and more jet aircraft.”

“We have very successful companies based and using our services” at the airport, he said.

Roenfeldt said the FAA would likely have comments on the proposed five-year plan that would need to be discussed and incorporated into the plan.