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Columbia Regional Airport Renovates Runway

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Preparation for runway construction work is underway at the Columbia Regional Airport (COU).

A release from the city of Columbia on Wednesday said the airport will break ground in the next few weeks to rebuild and lengthen runway 13-31. The release also said the project will be completed in the summer of 2017.

Columbia contractor Emery Sapp and Sons began clearing only trees on Tuesday and will suspend the rest of the Runway Safety Enhancement Project until next spring sometime around March.  

“We started this year to get the contract in place knowing the winter weather will not allow us to continue work,” Emery Sapp and Sons Project Manager Chris Landwehr said via email. “Now that the contract is in place we will shut the project down and suspend days until work resumes again in the spring.”

Landwehr said the project should be completed by fall of 2017. He said the city’s “completion date is wrong.” 

The city awarded Emery Sapp and Sons the construction contract to rebuild and lengthen runway 13-31. The project is part of the 2009 Airport Master Plan. The runway will be repaired and lengthened from a 75 foot wide, 4,400 foot long asphalt surface runway to a 100 foot wide, 5,500 foot long concrete surface crosswind runway. 

According to the release, the FAA awarded the city and COU an $11.1 million grant in October to fund 90 percent of the project costs. The remaining 10 percent, $1.22 million, will be funded by the local transportation sales tax. The total cost of the project is set at $12.32 million.

"This is another step in our long term planning to ensure Columbia Regional Airport is a safe, efficient and modern airport able to serve the economic and tourism needs of Columbia and central Missouri," Columbia's Economic Development Director Stacey Button said in the release.

Columbia Community Relations Director Steven Sapp said the city does not expect any delays at the airport. In 2015, improvements to the intersection of runway 13-31 and 2-20 were finished to make sure the main runway will remain open 24/7 during the project. 

“We really need to keep it on a fairly accelerated timeline,” Sapp said. “There have always, since the airport opened in the mid to late 60s, there have always been two runways available at least for general aviation traffic. The crosswind runway and the main runway so, you know, it’s an important project and so when want to keep it moving forward as quickly as possible.”

Sapp said the construction contract has a 250 day completion date. 

“There are allowances of course for weather because the contractors certainly can’t control that,” Sapp said.  

Sapp said the new runway will be much safer. 

“The project really benefits folks that fly because it provides a new, safer, more reliable crosswind runway,” Sapp said. “So most airports have a main runway that is used in most weather conditions and then depending upon the direction of the wind, a crosswind runway is needed especially during landing and takeoff.”

The crosswind runway will have a more stable and thicker concrete.

“Right now the current crosswind runway isn’t capable of really handling commercial traffic. It can handle small general aviation aircraft, but not large commercial aircraft.”

According to the release, the project will also include: 

  • The placement of new taxiway B
  • Installation of new lighting system for both runway 13-31 and taxiway B
  • Placement of state of the art vertical/visual guidance system also known as a Precision Approach Path Indicator on runway 13-31

Sapp said in the next couple of years, after they complete runway 13-31 first, they will “extend the main runway another thousand feet” — from 6,400 feet to 7,400 feet.