“This funding will help the Telluride Regional Airport in its goal of providing safe and efficient air service for the communities in and around San Miguel County,” Salazar said in a press release.
The grant will enable the airport to continue upgrading its runway and complete the widening of the runway safety areas, including the installation of Engineered Material Arresting System – or EMAS – at the end of each runway, and moving an existing taxiway out of the safety area.
“These safety improvements are vital to our airport and to the traveling public,” said Airport Manager Rich Nuttall, in a press release.
Unlike the last year’s Phase 2 project – a $23 million, seven-month phase of improvements that closed TEX between April and November while crews backfilled a notorious dip at the runway’s center that helped the nation’s highest commercial airport also earn its reputation as one of the country’s most challenging mountain airports, Phase 3 is unlikely to require more than a few weeks’ closure of the airport, if that.
The phase will finally upgrade the runway to a new D-III safety category, ultimately enabling it to accommodate larger aircraft than it can now, notably the Bombardier Q400 airplane, capable of carrying 76 passengers.
The ability bring more passenger traffic to TEX comes at a critical time, as the airport stands to lose $1 million in federal capital improvements funding in 2011 because the number of commercial passengers projected to depart from the airport this year may well fall below the 10,000 minimum needed to qualify for the federal funding.
But even after runway improvements are complete, the airport cannot begin accepting the larger aircraft until the Federal Aviation Administration develops new runway approach minimums, and the airport terminal will need to be enlarged to accommodate more passengers.
“Once those are done I feel confident that we’ll be on our way to seeing more success,” said Nuttall.
In the meantime, the airport held a pre-bid conference attended by 23 contractors interested in bidding on the project held earlier this week.
Bids will be opened on March 16,
“Stay tuned to March 16,” Nuttall said.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the bailed out bankers are posting foreclosure notes on many many front doors...as the antics of Goldman Sachs (single handedly destroyed the net assets of AIG and then we bailed them out of their mess at par) come to light in the EU and Greece...
Unbelievable and unprincipled to spend this kind of money on this little concrete runway.
Capitalism for the poor...
Point of information, on February 4, 2009, Republic Airways Holdings announced that it plans to get rid of the Bombardier Q400's operated by it's subsidiary Frontier. Btw SAS grounded the Q400 a few years ago. Now what??
50 million dollars...divided by 10k flights per year say 40 years life...50.000.000 divided by 400,000 is 125 subsidy for each flight..paid by my kid cuz we sure are never going to pay any of it...
$50,000,000.....
Ya gotta be kidding..
There you sit, squatting on federal lands for the ski run, getting every sort of dollar to renovate the sewer system, subsidizing your take over of private land by using the tax write off for the contributions and then taxing 2% of groceries to pay off the rest.....so the nordic bunch can scare the elk off with their diesel machine...
and you criticize us for wanting a job?
C'mon, be principled, send the money back!
The real reds are in Tride.