Tuesday, November 01, 2011

One Big Project Ends While Officials Plan for More. Daviess County Airport (KDCY), Washington, Indiana.


WASHINGTON, IND. (WTHI) - A small southern Indiana airport is putting the wraps on a big improvement project.

The Daviess County Airport has been closed for the last few weeks while crews carried out an $875,000 up grade.

The airport is already a hub for corporate aircraft in the area and officials want to expand their capabilities to handle even more air traffic in the future.

Crews are putting the finishing touches on the re-paving of the main runway at the Daviess County Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration paid for 95 percent of the work and local officials say it was badly needed.

"We needed to improve the runway because it had been in a deteriorating condition for the last several years and getting worse by the year and this is a vast improvement over what we had before," said Daviess County Airport Manager Jack Miles.

At least 80 percent of the traffic at the airport comes from corporate planes.

With I-69 expanding nearby officials say the airport is another piece in the job attraction puzzle.

"Transportation of all kinds is very important to business," said Ron Arnold with the Daviess County Economic Development Corporation. "To get their folks in and out, corporate folks in and out you need an adequate airport."

While the paving project is winding down officials aren't finished with the improvements for the airport.

In fact they're talking about an expansion of the runway to allow larger jets to land there.

"Five thousand feet is what we really need" said Miles. A lot of the airports that carry commercial jet traffic need 5000-feet of runway."

"It's huge to have an airport that can handle corporate jets," added Arnold.

The idea now is that by making the airport bigger and better it can open the way for jobs in Daviess County in the future.

The Airport hopes to have the expanded runway in place by 2016.