"Construction takes off at Georgia's oldest airport"

Monday, March 14, 2005

Construction takes off at state's oldest airport
The Athens (GA) Banner-Herald


Georgia's oldest airport is getting a facelift.

A bevy of projects -- including a new terminal, parking lot, entrance and
fire station, and a longer runway -- are slated for construction over the
next few years at Athens-Ben Epps Airport.

The layout of the entire airport, which was founded by Ben Epps in 1917,
will be reconfigured between now and 2010 to accommodate more planes,
airport Manager Tim Beggerly said. Construction on the parking lot and fire
station have already started, and new hangars are on the way as well.

"The way these hangars were built, it's kind of crazy," Beggerly said. "They
take up all the space." An average of 210 flights a day -- corporate jets,
private planes, U.S. Airways shuttles to Charlotte, N.C., and chartered
planes -- take off or land at Athens-Ben Epps. The demand for more hangar
space is rising, Beggerly said.

The construction has been a hassle for some charter operators and flight
instructors at the airport. Equipment has cut telephone and Internet lines,
and some buildings are difficult to access. But the improvements will be
worth it, said Robert Baker, director of operations for the charter company
AirStar.

"It's like a dose of medicine," Baker said. "Once you feel better, it
doesn't taste so bad." But the construction going on now is only the most
visible aspect of the improvements coming to the airport. A new $8 million
terminal, funded by a mix of local sales taxes and Federal Aviation
Administration dollars, is scheduled to be built in 2011.

The terminal will include airline and car rental services, administrative
offices and maybe a restaurant where diners can watch planes take off and
land from a courtyard or through glass walls, Beggerly said.

A 1,000-foot runway extension is also on the airport's wish list. Beggerly
and engineering consultant Mike Reiter presented plans to the Athens-Clarke
County Commission Tuesday for the $7 million to $12 million extension, which
they said would improve safety by giving pilots more room to land.

Landing space is "something pilots always obsess about," said Athens-Clarke
Commissioner Elton Dodson, a licensed pilot.

The extension also would allow 60- to 90-passenger regional jets, which
already use the airport, to take off fully loaded. The current 5,500-foot
runway is not long enough for such a plane to take off with a full load of
passengers or fuel, Beggerly said.

The improvements won't lead larger planes to fly into Athens-Ben Epps,
Beggerly said. The width of the runway and the turning angles of ramps will
not accommodate anything larger than a regional jet, he said.

Selling more fuel, leasing more hangar space and allowing more flights will
help the airport's bottom line, Dodson said. The airport is self-sufficient
now, but "we're getting to the point where that may not be the case," he
said.

Both options for the extension have drawbacks, though. The $12 million plan
is more expensive because it would require filling in a drop-off at the
runway's eastern end. But it would let airport officials move navigation
equipment to accommodate the rearrangement of roads, parking and hangars,
Beggerly said.

The $7 million plan would require buying five or six houses bordering on
airport property, an unpopular idea with commissioners. "I'm not into
condemning property with houses on it," Commissioner Tom Chasteen said.

>From a local perspective, the cost difference will not be much, Beggerly
said, because the FAA will pay 95 percent of the cost, and state and local
governments split the rest. The $7 million plan would cost Athens-Clarke
$175,000, while the $12 million plan would cost $300,000 locally.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************