Large grants go to Newburgh, N.Y., and Philadelphia, among others.
Photo courtesy Philadelphia International Airport
Scores of airports from coast to coast got good news from the Federal Aviation Administration, with the agency’s announcement of $636.1 million for improvements to runways, taxiways and other infrastructure.
The funds, which the FAA announced on Aug. 9, will provide 320 grants in 46 states and American Samoa.
The funding comes from the FAA’s long-standing Airport Improvement Program; other recently announced FAA grants draw from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The largest individual grant in this new round is $24.2 million, to rehabilitate a runway at New York Stewart International in Newburgh, N.Y.
Other large awards include $16.3 million to Philadelphia International Airport, for runway improvements; $15.8 million to Willow Run Airport in Detroit to build a new taxiway; and $15 million for runway rehabilitation at Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole on the island of Hawaii.
Several other allocations went to block-grant programs in Georgia, Illinois, Michigan and Texas. Under these programs, states distribute funds they receive from FAA to non-primary commercial, reliever and general aviation airports.
Many grants go for infrastructure, particularly runways, taxiways, aprons and terminals, but some will finance non-infrastructure uses such as updating master plans and acquiring firefighting and snow-removal equipment.
Of the $636.1-million total, $474.2 million, or about 75%, is in the form of FAA entitlement funding, which is awarded according to formula; the other 25% is in the form of FAA discretionary funds.
Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.
