City, feds spent millions in 2017 to repair runway at issue in airport closure
The city of Columbia and the Federal Aviation Administration spent millions of dollars to rebuild the runway now causing issues at the Columbia Regional Airport.
The city received a federal grant to rebuild Runway 13-31 in late 2016. The FAA covered 90 percent of the cost of the project, or $11.1 million, while the city chipped in 10 percent of the cost, estimated at $1.22 million, through the Transportation Sales Tax.
Now, interim City Manager John Glascock said they must close it again to fix it.
Three of the four airline carriers servicing COU announced over the weekend that they would temporarily suspend services due to pilot safety concerns about the runway. Pilots and passengers reported feeling a bump when the plane went over the crown of the runway where it intersects with Runway 2-20. The city decided Monday that it would close Runway 13-31, suspending flights to and from the airport until at least April 15.
Planes have been forced to land on that runway while the city makes repairs to the surface of the airport’s main runway, Runway 2-20. The $6 million project is also being split between the city, the FAA and the Missouri Department of Transportation.
The city celebrated the reopening of Runway 13-31 in November 2017, touting the fact that commercial airlines could now land and take off from it.
Glascock said the crown is required by the FAA for water drainage. He said the crown is compliant with the FAA, but it wasn’t until commercial airlines began using it that the problem became apparent.
“Proof’s in the pudding,” Glascock said. “Until you drive over it, you don’t really know how rough it’s going to be.”
The city received approval from the FAA to repair Runway 2-20 in October 2017, according to the city budget. An interested parties meeting on the repairs in Feb. 2018 turned up no comments in opposition to the plan to close the runway, and no one spoke at the June 4 Columbia City Council meeting against the plan. Minutes from the city’s Airport Advisory Board meeting show that airport leaders held a conference call with the airline carriers on Jan. 3 about the repairs, but do not note if any of the carriers voiced concerns with the plan.
Glascock suspected that the small planes that often use Runway 13-31 were not going far enough on it to feel the crown. He said the closure of Runway 13-31 to fix it came from his concerns over passenger safety.
“If a pilot has any kind of concerns, I have concerns,” Glascock said. “So for me, it’s about safety. You know, if we have an accident, and we don’t listen, and we do end up having an accident, it’s going to be blamed on that. And so we need to fix it.”
Glascock said money to fix Runway 13-31 would come from the airport’s budget. City spokesman Steve Sapp told ABC 17 News that airport employees would still report for work, despite the stoppage in flights during the next week.
