Airport officials and community leaders had front-row seats to a takeoff and a sequence of landings Friday at Shreveport Regional Airport to celebrate the completion of a seven-month project to repave Runway 6-24.
“This is a more than $5 million project to completely rebuild this runway,” said Bill Cooksey, deputy airports director “If you had driven this runway a year ago, you would have seen rock coming loose or gravel. It was deteriorating very rapidly and it was becoming, to us, a safety issue.”
Shreveport Regional is home to 85 general aviation aircraft. They are the ones that most often will use the secondary runway, which at 6,202 feet long can accommodate most plane types up to larger, narrow-body aircraft. Larger planes still have use of the airport’s primary runway, which is 8,351 feet long.
The repairs were funded by the Federal Aviation Administration and Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development’s aviation division. While necessary, the project likely will have little effect on the local economy, according to Mark Crawford, marketing and public relations manager for Shreveport’s airports.
Airport Authority board member Margaret Sheehee said the repaired runway may have unforeseen benefits. “You never know, there could be. If we have better runways and better equipment, that does attract business,” she said, noting that Shreveport Regional is the primary airport for all of northwest Louisiana, not just Shreveport.
“We want people from Arkansas to come here, we want people from east Texas to come here, we want everybody to come here. With more safety and better equipment, the rising tide lifts all boats. It’s good for everybody.”
Story and Video: http://www.shreveporttimes.com
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