Buckeye will benefit from nearly $500,000 in federal funding that will be used for safety and runway improvements at its municipal airport.
The grant from the Federal Aviation Administration is the latest move to bolster the airfield's economic potential, officials said.
The money will be used to construct blast pads and run-up aprons at the airport, which handles small general aviation aircraft. The FAA provided a $477,000 grant, and Buckeye and the Arizona Department of Transportation will contribute about $12,500 each toward the construction.
Scott Lowe, Buckeye public works director, said the work will bring the airport's configuration and taxiway system up to standards. The improvements will be done by early spring.
The project will involve paving both ends of the 5,500-foot runway and adding what are known a blast pads, a sort of louver that serves as a buffer for the dirt, debris and noise caused by a plane when the pilot is powering up for takeoff.
The money will pay for run-up areas, wide spots in the taxiway at the end of runways that allow pilots to stop and perform final checks before taxiing onto the active runway.
"Our taxiways are not wide enough for somebody to pull off to the side, do those types of run-ups and then take the active runway," Lowe said. "You might have an incident where you're going to have an instructor and a student and so it make a take little bit longer to do that and then another aircraft has to wait. Of course, time is money when you're talking about aviation."
The Buckeye Municipal Airport is more than a mile south of Interstate 10 off Palo Verde Road. The runway's weight restriction is 30,000 pounds per wheel. The runway is 75-feet wide.
Several flight schools from Goodyear and elsewhere use the airport, Lowe said. There is also a flight and sky diving school on the airfield. All of the airport's asphalt surfaces were redone in 2010.
The airport features an automatic weather station so pilots can tune to a frequency and receive current wind and temperature conditions. Its other amenities include a wind cone for wind direction and a rotating beacon so that pilots flying at night know what type of airfield is below.
"We have pilot-controlled lighting so when a pilot comes in, they're tuned into our frequency and they can click on their microphone and turn on the lights of the airfield," Lowe said. "They'll be on long enough to land and then they automatically shut themselves off. We have what a pilot would expect at a modern general aviation airport."
Plans call for the 8,700-foot runway one day so the largest types of general aviation aircraft could use it. Eventually, a control tower will be built, Lowe said.
"We do have plans for additional hangar space for those who need it," he said. "We've put together a parcel map so commercial aviation can come and ground-lease parcels of land so that they can put in private development of hangers and other aviation-related businesses."
Along Palo Verde Road, there is land designated for commercial development, such as hotels and restaurants that could one day be associated with the airport.
The airport offers limited hangar space because of lack of infrastructure, said Stephen Cleveland, Buckeye town manager.
"We now need to upgrade the water infrastructure so we have fire protection and people can't rent hangars and put hangars in it," he said. "That is one of our goals is over the next year is to build infrastructure in those places that will advance that."
Ultimately, Cleveland said the airport and the plans for the land surrounding it should be able to support a number of businesses for general aviation pilots.
"It's not going to be commercial hub because we need to make sure Luke Air Force Base airspace is protected," he said.
A runway that is too long in Buckeye would raise questions about Luke's viability and longevity, as well as the ability to fly from the base to the Barry M. Goldwater Range to the south, Cleveland said.
The town is completing a study on land to the north and south of the airport. Once the environmental assessment is done, Buckeye can begin acquiring parcels, Cleveland said.
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