Next year’s rebuild of a runway at the Lewison-Nez Perce County Regional Airport will keep the airstrip open.
The Federal Aviation Administration will cover 93 percent – or $6.7 million – of the cost of the project, scheduled to begin next April and wrap up by the end of next summer. The rest of the cost will be paid for through revenue from passenger facility charges of $4.50 per ticket on commercial passenger departures from Lewiston.
The runway, the smaller of the two at the Lewiston airport, faced possible permanent closure by the FAA due to its surface rated as ‘poor’ – one category above failure, which requires closure. While the runway is too short to accommodate planes used by SkyWest, it’s used by the majority of the airports’ planes, including those for FedEx and UPS.
The reconstructed runway will have a new water drainage system, and one taxiway will be redone to meet new FAA rules that require taxiways to have turns before they reach a runway. The new runway will be slightly smaller than the current path, measuring 25 feet narrower and 250 feet shorter, as its safety zone overlapped with the one for the longer runway.
Officials say the smaller size was what was supported by the FAA since the runway isn’t used by commercial passenger planes. (Lewiston Tribune)
