Northern Maine Regional Airport receives $3.9 million grant

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – The second and final phase of an improvement project at the Northern Maine Regional Airport in Presque Isle is expected to get off the ground in the coming weeks.
    U.S. Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced last week that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded a grant in the amount of $3,914,075 for improvements to the runway.
“These funds are critical to helping the Northern Maine Regional Airport complete the second phase of construction for Runway 1-19,” the senators said in a joint statement. “This money will be used to reconstruct a portion of the runway that has exceeded its useful life and is showing deterioration. It is important that this work be completed to help ensure that the people of Aroostook County have safe, reliable access to air transportation.”
In addition to the runway project, runway reconstruction will also include the replacement of high intensity runway lights, and the runway end safety areas for Runway 1-19 will be improved to comply with the runway safety area design standards.
Scott Wardwell, airport director, said phase one was completed in 2003.
“That summer, we did a lot of work on the main runway,” he said. “What the overall goal of this grand project was to bring the safety areas to current FAA standards, and also replace the pavement that’s nearing the end of its useful life … next year the pavement would be 30 years old.
“Back in 2003, a lot of people had the misconception that we were lengthening the runway. We weren’t really lengthening the runway,” said Wardwell, “we were increasing the size of the grass safety areas at both ends of the runway. It went from 500 feet to 1,000 feet. If an aircraft on takeoff has to abort or on landing for some reason can’t get stopped on the pavement, it gives them 1,000 feet of very smoothly grated turf and a further chance to slow down.”
Wardwell said phase two of the project will address “the rest of the pavement, completely finish it, and re-grade and bring the safety areas on the side of the runway up to current FAA standards.”
“This will be the last phase of this project,” he said.
The airport director said it’s not uncommon for airports to have safety areas not meeting federal standards.
“One of the things that makes this project one of national significance – and it’s actually the first project approved this year out of the FAA New England region – is because it allows them (FAA) to get one more runway up to current safety area standards,” said Wardwell. “Everything was expedited quite quickly in order to get the project done, and people in Washington, D.C. could see that the New England region is marching along in their goals to get commercial airports up to current FAA safety area standards.”
Preliminary work is expected to begin April 30 or May 1.
“We’re hoping that’s when H.E. Sargent of Old Town will bring in their work trailers, start mobilizing some equipment, and getting paperwork squared away,” Wardwell said. “Our wish is the second or third week of May they’ll be able to start digging in earnest. There are some things they can do on the project before the frost really gets out of the ground … whether they decide to do it or not I don’t know.
“We want this project to be finished Sept. 15,” he said.
The second phase of the project will cost $4.6 million.
“The federal share is $3,914,075, the state share is $557,562, and the local share is $216,642,” said Wardwell. “Normally with these projects the cost share is 95 percent FAA, 2.5 percent city and 2.5 percent state. For this particular project, those numbers are skewed because part of the project isn’t FAA eligible … the fact that we’re keeping the width of the runway at 150 feet.
“For the aircraft that we have flying in and out of here, the FAA said the runway width only needed to be 100 feet wide,” he said. “Between the state and the city, we had to pay for that additional width, which was 80 percent state and 20 percent local for that part of the project. A lot of credit for the state part of this has to go to Rep. Jeremy Fischer (D-Presque Isle) and Sen. John Martin (D-Eagle Lake) because there were times when the state airport bond issue was going through the legislature and it looked like our project was in jeopardy, and they were able to advocate on our behalf.”
Sens. Snowe and Collins expressed pleasure with DOT’s early determination. This early decision will allow the airport to complete the work on schedule with the least amount of disruption to airport customers.
“There may be a flight or two that can’t get in right on time,” said Wardwell, “but for the most part, we should be able to operate just as we always have. People really won’t see much of a difference during the improvement phase. The impact to the traveling public should really be quite minor.”