Officials: Hailey Airport Can’t Meet Standards

November 13, 2003

Officials: Hailey Airport Can’t Meet Standards
IdahoStateman.com, ID


HAILEY — The only way to meet federal safety standards is to move the
Friedman Memorial Airport, officials say.
The once-isolated gateway to Idaho´s famed Sun Valley resort is boxed in
by developments, private property and Idaho 75.

That makes it impossible to provide a 1,000-foot runway buffer zone or
other required Federal Aviation Administration safety improvements without
running into unacceptable costs, the airport authority´s board of
commissioners decided.

“There is a full FAA standard we are trying to achieve, and the costs in
dollars and the costs for the community were too great for the authority,”
airport manager Rick Baird said.

“We knew we´d have to move the busiest highway in the state, move some
businesses, buy land and close down for the entire summer while the new
runway was built, and that would be too hard on the community.”

Upgrading the current airport could take about $45 million and between
seven and 10 years — about the same amount of time it would likely take to
build a new one, Baird said.

FAA officials have said they will approve a scaled-back improvement plan
while the airport completes a feasibility study on a new airport, Baird
said.

For instance, officials will be allowed temporarily to extend the runway
by just 200 feet and complete grading along the sides of the runway
instead of installing the 1,000-foot buffer zone required under the FAA´s
Airport Reference Code.


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