CAA: GA News, "Oklahoma airport to wear 'out of order' sign for month"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Saturday, September 8, 2001

Airport to wear 'out of order' sign for month 
By VIRGINIA BRADSHAW 
The Shawnee (OK) News-Star


First, the good news:

Repairs at the Shawnee Municipal Airport should make planes roll to a
stop a bit more smoothly.

The bad news:

The airport is expected to be closed 20 to 30 days while the project is
in progress.

Shawnee city commissioners Tuesday night authorized City Manager Terry
Powell to accept an almost $1 million grant from Federal Aviation
Administration that FAA officials said the city will soon receive for
Shawnee Municipal Airport runway repairs.

The runway will be closed within the next 20 days so that work can begin
on eliminating an approximately 1,000-foot-long dip, relocate the south
runway threshold, seal coat and fill cracks in the entire runway and
taxiway, Lori Bowlan, assistant airport manager, said Wednesday.

The city has been notified that FAA will contribute $956,512 to the
project. City of Shawnee's 10 percent share will be $48,250 through
in-house engineering design and $58,029 in appropriations.

Application for a $1,067,792 grant was submitted to FAA Aug. 30 for the
runway/taxiway rehabilitation project.

Since then, FAA has verbally committed to a 90 percent contribution for
the entire project.

The City Commission Tuesday night accepted a $1,014,542 bid from Lamar
Industries, Inc., Shawnee, low bidder, for construction of the project.

A pre-construction conference is to be in the next 10 days. A notice to
proceed probably will be issued within 10 days after that, Bowlan said.

She has proposed to FAA that a 2,000-foot grass landing strip be
approved for use during the period the runway is closed but has received
no answer yet.

Bowlan expects it will be two to three weeks before a response is
received.

"We don't want to get false hopes up but we have to try," she said.

Such a grass landing strip would not accommodate all types of planes
"but it might be a good backup plan in case someone had to land,"

Bowlan proposes that the grass strip be about 450 feet west of the
runway and parallel to it.

The dip is about 1,000 feet from the north end of the runway -- just
south of the MacArthur Street underpass.

The threshold at the south end of the runway will be relocated to
provide a 1,000-foot safety area, required by a new federal regulation.

The safety area now is 600 feet long.

In a resolution approved unanimously Tuesday night, commissioners
ratified the city manager's submission of the grant application,
accepted the grant offer from FAA on condition that the city has
sufficient funds to cover its 10 percent local share, and authorized
Powell to execute the grant agreement to coincide with the construction
schedule.

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