MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The City of Morgantown will provide more than $2 million dollars to the Morgantown Municipal Airport to help continue with ongoing construction projects.
In a move unanimously passed by Morgantown City Council, the Morgantown Municipal Airport will receive approximately $2.5 million through the city’s Capital Escrow Fund. The money is expected to be used strictly for labor cost regarding the construction of new hangars and a runway extension. The hangars are expected to bring in various types of business opportunities ranging from aviation enthusiasts to incoming and outgoing private planes.
“This is the labor needed to complete the construction,” said Brake. “So that includes building the foundation in the third hangar, doing vertical construction of hangar two and three, completing that. There’s a small amount of work that needs to be done in hangar one in order to be fully operational.”
The money will also be used as construction continues on runway extension. That extension will nearly quadruple the size of the airport runway from 1,400 feet to 6,200 feet. The project was originally expected to be finished in 2016, but is still awaiting approval of both the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force Reserve’s Innovative Readiness Team, who will help with the project.
“That would not begin until next summer of 2019, then that would take, from what I’ve been told, it would take about a year to complete that. So starting 2019 it would be completed in 2020.”
Brake said that could then lead to the construction of a business park, which remains in the planning stages.
“The combination would be a significant area,” he said. “In particular, if it’s developed as a commerce park, that could accommodate whether it’s a particular industry, research and development, any hosts of industries that could relocate to the park.”
Even though the project is still in it’s early stages, Brake said there is optimism in completing the project within their current time frame.
“This is a great start to the beginning of the year,” he said. “I mean we’re talking about pretty significant investments and really looking at building a vibrant community through great community spaces and having a robust transportation system.”
The hangars are expected to be operational by late spring.