Here is your stimulis at work - needs no comment from me other than this is absolutely one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.
Takotna to get $21 million airport
By Tim Mowry
Published Wednesday, June 24, 2009
FAIRBANKS — The village of Takotna is getting a new $21 million airport, which translates to almost $500,000 per person in the small Bush village about 300 miles west of Fairbanks.
The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities received a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to build the airport.
State officials aren’t thrilled about having to spend $21 million on an airport for a village of 46 people, but it’s not really an option, said Roger Maggard, DOT’s airport development manager.
“The fact of it is, in order to meet all the dimensional requirements that the FAA requires for funding an airport, they do become quite expensive,” Maggard said. “It doesn’t matter in terms of airport costs whether it’s 50 people or 250 people or 500 people. It still requires the same airport facility.”
The $21 million grant for the airport was part of more than $70 million worth of grants and contracts awarded to communities throughout Alaska by the U.S. Department of Transportation last week, according to a press release from the Alaska congressional delegation.
At 3,300 feet long and 75 feet wide, the new airport in Takotna will be almost twice the size of the old one, Maggard said.
The current airport in Takotna is 1,700 feet long and 45 feet wide.
The new airport will be located at a new site because the old one is built into the side of a hill, Maggard said. The new facility also will be lighted. The current airstrip does not have lights. Maggard described the airport in Takotna as “very substandard.”
“The existing airport is the state’s airport, and it needed to be upgraded,” Maggard said. “We did a planning analysis and determined the best thing to do was relocate it to an area that was better able to meet the dimensional requirements of the FAA.”
The FAA will provide 95 percent of the funding for the airport with the state supplying the remaining
5 percent, Maggard said.
The Takotna airport is one of 256 rural airports in Alaska managed by DOT. The agency spends an average of about $140 million per year on rural airport projects, most of which is funded under the federal airport improvement program, Maggard said.
“Most of the major projects in small villages are cases where the state may have built an airport a long time ago without federal funding and it was not built to modern standards, so we’re going back in to upgrade them,” he said.
The airport is essentially the only way in and out of Takotna during summer months, though riverboats can sometimes be used to reach nearby McGrath, about 20 miles away on the Kuskokwim River, depending on water levels in the Takotna River.
“They do have river access in the summertime, but the river gets shallow so even that is questionable at times, Maggard said.
Takotna to get $21 million airport
By Tim Mowry
Published Wednesday, June 24, 2009
FAIRBANKS — The village of Takotna is getting a new $21 million airport, which translates to almost $500,000 per person in the small Bush village about 300 miles west of Fairbanks.
The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities received a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to build the airport.
State officials aren’t thrilled about having to spend $21 million on an airport for a village of 46 people, but it’s not really an option, said Roger Maggard, DOT’s airport development manager.
“The fact of it is, in order to meet all the dimensional requirements that the FAA requires for funding an airport, they do become quite expensive,” Maggard said. “It doesn’t matter in terms of airport costs whether it’s 50 people or 250 people or 500 people. It still requires the same airport facility.”
The $21 million grant for the airport was part of more than $70 million worth of grants and contracts awarded to communities throughout Alaska by the U.S. Department of Transportation last week, according to a press release from the Alaska congressional delegation.
At 3,300 feet long and 75 feet wide, the new airport in Takotna will be almost twice the size of the old one, Maggard said.
The current airport in Takotna is 1,700 feet long and 45 feet wide.
The new airport will be located at a new site because the old one is built into the side of a hill, Maggard said. The new facility also will be lighted. The current airstrip does not have lights. Maggard described the airport in Takotna as “very substandard.”
“The existing airport is the state’s airport, and it needed to be upgraded,” Maggard said. “We did a planning analysis and determined the best thing to do was relocate it to an area that was better able to meet the dimensional requirements of the FAA.”
The FAA will provide 95 percent of the funding for the airport with the state supplying the remaining
5 percent, Maggard said.
The Takotna airport is one of 256 rural airports in Alaska managed by DOT. The agency spends an average of about $140 million per year on rural airport projects, most of which is funded under the federal airport improvement program, Maggard said.
“Most of the major projects in small villages are cases where the state may have built an airport a long time ago without federal funding and it was not built to modern standards, so we’re going back in to upgrade them,” he said.
The airport is essentially the only way in and out of Takotna during summer months, though riverboats can sometimes be used to reach nearby McGrath, about 20 miles away on the Kuskokwim River, depending on water levels in the Takotna River.
“They do have river access in the summertime, but the river gets shallow so even that is questionable at times, Maggard said.
