Council approves Columbia Regional Airport renovation

Improvements deemed urgent would cost $40 million.

By Will Guldin

Published Oct. 20, 2009

City Council unanimously approved a $64 million updated plan for the renovation of the Columbia Regional Airport during its meeting Monday night.

The plan, which has been in the works for more than a year, would improve several features of the airport to make it up to date with Federal Aviation Administration safety standards and attract more business to the airport, which is expected to see an increase in passengers this year.

Joe Jackson, vice president of aviation for Reynolds, Smith and Hill, an engineering consulting firm in charge of creating the plan, said this level of flight traffic was important in order to secure funding for the new improvements.

"What's important is this level of activity ensures the continuation of federal grants, a million dollars a year or more if you have more than 10,000 (passengers) in planes," Jackson said.

According to airport documents, the plan would do several things to improve the airport. The first part of the renovation would be made up of priority repairs and last from one to seven years. The total cost of those urgent improvements is an estimated $40 million, but the federal and state government would cover almost 95 percent of that. Other non-essential features can also be added to the airport's design at a cost of $8 million.

As part of the plan, the crosswind runway would be replaced, which Jackson said will be inoperable by 2013 if nothing is done to fix it. Other projects include expanding the primary runway's length an additional 900 feet to a total length of about 7,400 feet. Several areas of pavement along the primary runway and taxiway would also be replaced.

Several long-term improvements are also planned on an as-needed basis, with costs for these totaling $16 million. Because these projects are not as pressing, Columbia would have to cover 26 percent of their cost.

Jackson said these improvements are needed to make the runway up-to-date with existing FFA standards, which have changed since its original construction. The airport is still safe to use.

"It's absolutely safe to fly now," he said. "The airport is well-controlled, the airlines flying in and out of the airport are trained to operate under these conditions. It's the margin of safety. How safe is safe enough? Well, this is clearly safe or the runway would be closed. It just increases the margin of safety."

Judy Gibson, who lives near the airport, would have 50 acres of her land bought by the city if the plan is put into place in order to accommodate the extended primary runway.

"We're pouring millions and millions of public dollars into something that is of little value, that's my feeling," Gibson said. "This plan was put into place a year and a half before we had any knowledge of it and I think that's wrong. Our families owned it for a hundred years and we couldn't be contacted prior to the beginning of this plan being started."

Third Ward Councilman Karl Skala said he was troubled that not everyone was included in the discussion of the plan, but he said upgrading the airport was critically important to Columbia.

"We're at an upward trend here and we need to capitalize that," Skala said. "And in terms of capital, this is an opportune plan to fit in with federal funding."

He said because the federal and state governments are contributing so much to the project, the city should not turn it down.

"We're almost obligated under fiscal responsibility to take advantage of those kinds of opportunities," Skala said.