Airport awaiting FAA survey before reopening

The Carson City Airport, which closed Nov. 9 for runway construction, is awaiting the go-ahead from the Federal Aviation Administra-

tion to reopen, Airport Manager Casey Pullman said this week.

"The new eastern section is completed - it's paved and striped and ready to go, but the FAA is completing its surveying," he said.

"It's very frustrating for us after we've gone through this phasing, but eventually, it falls out of our control. We're in contact with them every day, a few times every day, and all our users and tenants are very anxious," Pullman said.

The FAA went to a new system of surveying, and every new runway needs to be surveyed. The runway was realigned three degrees to the north.

"We were going to open on an interim basis, but we have to be sure we're in compliance with FAA regulations," he said.

Work also is being done on the western section, and that project is expected to be completed by the first week in December, he said.

"Usually with new runways, they just close the entire airport, but we decided on phases to keep the airport open as much as possible. FAA wanted to close it, but it would have been closed for an entire month. The surveying is just taking longer than anyone expected," Pullman said.

The $9.6 million runway project is Carson City's biggest stimulus project. The realigned and extended runway will open the door to more business at the airport, allowing the biggest business aircraft and more charter planes to land there.

The project by Granite Construction, Pullman said, is the second step in a series of improvements that will take the airport into the future. The first was physically removing the 80-foot-tall hill that used to sit at the end of the runway. Other improvements include taxiways on both sides of the runway, a weather reporting system and taxiway lights.