FAA funds

After years of uncertainty surrounding when and how Portland Municipal Airport’s runway extension would be funded, a definitive answer came Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Thursday the federal government would fund 100% of phase one — grading and drainage — of the airport’s runway extension from 4,000 feet to 5,500 feet this fiscal year.

An agreement between the city and the Federal Aviation Administration was signed later in the day, finalizing the funding stream and setting the airport on track to have its extended runway operational by 2022.

The estimated $2,398,762 project at Portland Municipal Airport was originally scheduled to receive just $341,623 in grants announced Sept. 1. It was believed after the announcement that the FAA had run out of funds this fiscal year for non-essential projects, said Jason Clearwaters of Butler, Fairman and Seufert, the airport’s engineering firm.

That wasn’t the case. Six more grants for Indiana airports through the Airport Improvement Program were announced Thursday, with Portland receiving roughly $2.3 million in a discretionary grant and $600,000 in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and entitlement grants.

“It’s great news for the community,” said Clearwaters, who estimated the full runway project could be completed by 2022 as originally planned.

He previously said the project would be delayed by at least year if funding wasn’t awarded prior to the end of the fiscal year Wednesday.

Portland Mayor John Boggs was informed of the news by a member of U.S. Rep. Jim Banks’ office last weekend that the funding was expected.

“It feels great to get it behind us,” Boggs said. The airport had missed out on full FAA funding of the project for two consecutive years.

Clearwaters said he encouraged Portland Aviation Board last week at its meeting to preliminarily approve a bid from HIS Constructors Inc. for roughly $2.4 million because he was tipped by an FAA representative that funding could come through.

“I knew last Wednesday that it was in the works,” he said, adding that he didn’t want to get the city’s hopes up after almost all-but-guaranteeing the project would be funded this year in the spring.

With the board’s approval, the Indianapolis-based contractor can begin work on building a box culvert immediately, Clearwaters said.

Though the airport can no longer hold HIS Constructors to its bid, Clearwaters said he received word from the contractor that it would stick to its under-budget $2,398,762 number until the end of the year.

Under the CARES Act, the FAA is required to fund 100% of any airport project it is in agreement with this fiscal year. Had project money been awarded for phase one in other years, Portland likely would’ve had to pay 5% of the project, roughly $120,000, of phase one construction costs, with Indiana paying another 5% and the FAA paying for the rest.

It will still likely have to pay 5% of phase two — paving and lighting — of the project next year, though that cost is estimated to be much cheaper. With phase one funded, Portland has a “much better chance” of receiving more funding from the FAA next year and the project will be a higher priority, Clearwaters said.

Funding from the FAA will also reimburse the $266,400 mitigation credit the city paid to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in March for the enclosure of 555 feet of Alexander Ditch, another needed step in the runway extension project.

As was the case Sept. 1, Indiana airports were awarded more grants than any other state Thursday. Newly announced multi-million dollar grants included airports in Gary, South Bend, Auburn and Greensburg.

Clearwaters’ firm is expected to design phase two of the runway project this winter.