Smoother Landings Coming To The Bismarck Airport!

I love flying---and especially like the take-off's---the power of the jet and the plane lifting off the ground into the air.   Landings are not always my favorite--depending on the turbulence.  My stomach is not fond of bouncing around before landing.  Got some good news for us traveling in and out of the Bismarck Airport!

The Bismarck Airport received a federal grant and will use this along with their entitlement funding from the Federal Aviation Administration for runway improvements.  The airport will mill off several inches of the pavement and lay on a new layer so the surface lasts another 3-5 years.  The project will end up costing $2.15 million, according to Greg Haug, airport manager.  It will begin in mid-September and will take 10-12 days to finish.  In September, the airport’s passenger numbers are typically down so the project will have less of an impact. 

He said there are more problems under the runway that will require further repairs down the road, but this is a start.  They will need a lot more funding for the future project, but this will buy more time while engineers can study everything and devise a funding plan.

This was great news for the airport; had they not received this funding, they would have had to pay for the project by spending some of their 2015 fiscal year dollars, so they would have had less money next year.  This grant allows enough money to be available for projects next year.  Greg said: “It’s a pretty important project for us.  We didn’t want to go through another freeze-thaw cycle.”

The Bismarck Airport has seen an increase in airplane passengers of approximately 70% over the last 10 years and an increase of 22.5% over the last four years.

Source: The Bismarck Tribune