“For me, it means I have to commute a lot more around the section doing my engineering contract work,” said Keiter. Keiter has lived just east of the airport for 32 years. The problem is, in order to make room, the city permanently shut down 110th street, meaning Keiter now lives at a dead end instead of having a straight shot to Highway 54. “So four times a day, okay, times an eight-mile round trip extra. So that’s 32 extra miles a day on some days that I have to commute,” Keiter said. While the project will be a major challenge for people like Keiter and McLemore, the worn-out, pothole-ridden runway will become a brand new, bigger runway with modern flight equipment in hopes of ultimately bringing in even more money for the little airport. “Once we get through the project, and it’s unveiled, you know, I think it’ll really be great for our business and for Augusta too,” said McLemore. He’s talking about the massive runway reconstruction project that’s about to leave his business, and every airplane parked at the airport on the day of the closure, stranded for seven months. “It’s actually been in the works for almost 15 years, going back to the original studies. And now we’re finally in the process of building it,” said Augusta City Manager Josh Shaw. Shaw says the FAA is paying for 90% of the more than $11 million new runway, and the city already set aside the rest of the money it needs to pay for it in 2016.
Source: KAKE – News
