A project to extend and repave the Cherry Capital Airport’s main runway in Traverse City will receive six million dollars in federal assistance.
The announcement was made Wednesday by U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow.
Kevin Klein is the airport director. He said the bulk of the project funding will go to extend and re-pave the airport’s main runway.
“The runway is approximately 24 years old so we’re going to resurface the entire length of that runway - pretty much taking that runway to be a brand new runway. We’re pretty excited about that.”
Klein said extending the runway is important in order to accommodate larger passenger loads.
“Airliners can only take on so much weight per the length of the runway. We want to make sure we have the proper runway length so that our airliners can go up full.”
Klein said the project will cost roughly 14 million dollars in total.
“The remainder of the funds, about 5.8 million dollars, will come from passenger facility charge funds also about another 1.5 million will come from local airport dollars and another four hundred thousand from the state of Michigan.”
Klein said the airport will also add navigational aids and increase the overall reliability of airport service.
He said the project will begin in mid September and is scheduled to run through October 1st.