Telluride Airport News

Telluride Regional Airport News

TEX Receives $3.4 Million in Additional Grant Funding - Phase 3 Project Now Completely Funded
by Karen James
Published: The Telluride Watch May 07, 2010

The Telluride Regional Airport has received an additional $3.4 million in federal funding to complete the third of a multi-phase runway and safety area improvement project in its entirety, U.S. Congressman John Salazar’s office confirmed on Friday, May 7.

The grant fills a critical shortfall between the $17 million in federal funding for completion of the phase previously awarded to the airport and announced by Salazar in early March, and a low construction bid of $20.4 million to complete the project opened just a few weeks later.

“As a pilot who frequently travels through Colorado’s mountain airspace I know how important it is to do all we can to make airport runways as safe as we possibly can. I support this funding for the Telluride Regional Airport and I will continue to support projects that put people to work and improve our country’s infrastructure,” Salazar said in a press release forwarded to The Watch prior to its wider distribution.

Now that full funding for the project has been secured, the airport will be able to complete each of 10 items scheduled for the phase, finally qualifying for a status upgrade from its current B-III safety category to a new D-III rating.

With the upgrade the airport will be able to accommodate larger aircraft than it can at present, notably the Bombardier Q400 airplane that is capable of carrying 76 passengers, upon which many are hedging their bets for improved tourism in the Telluride region.

“This really takes care of all the safety items for the runway project,” said Airport Manager Rich Nuttall. “We appreciate the Congressman's support on this.”

With the initial funding of $17 million for the phase the airport would have been able to complete its highest priority items including all of the earthworks needed for the safety areas upgrades and the installation of Engineered Material Arresting System – or EMAS – at each end of the runway, according to Nuttall.

EMAS is a bed of crushable concrete placed at the end of a runway that is designed to keep aircraft from running off the runway without harming passengers and with minimal aircraft damage. EMAS systems are often compared to runaway truck ramps used on steep-grade highways.

However, the difference between the original grant and the total construction cost meant that lower priority items still necessary for the safety category upgrade would have remained incomplete until new funding could be secured.

“If we get the physical work done by November 1 we’re theoretically two years ahead of schedule,” said Nuttall.

“This is a major accomplishment for the airport.”

Yet although the airport could conceivably qualify for the status change in just a few months, it will still be some time before it is actually able to accept larger aircraft.

The Federal Aviation Administration will still need to design and publish new category approaches for the runway that enable pilots to fly into the airport during bad weather using instruments rather than visual references, Nuttall said.

While that process could take as long as 18 months, “We’re hoping to get it done sooner than that,” he said.

The terminal will also need to be enlarged in order to accommodate the increased number of passengers that come and go in the larger aircraft.

“The goal is to have all those three items done by November 2011,” said Nuttall.

Unlike the last year’s Phase 2 project – a $23 million, seven-month phase of improvements that closed TEX between April and November while crews backfilled a notorious dip at the runway’s center, Phase 3 will have it closed only between May 10 and June 8, and now possibly for a few days in August.

“That should be all the closures for this year,” said Nuttall.

Moon man re-opens airport - Neil Armstrong cuts ribbon at renamed Micetic Field
By REILLY CAPPS
Special to the Planet
Published: Thursday, December 17, 2009 8:30 PM CST

In 1969, he guided the lunar module to the surface of the moon, but on Thursday he flew commercial. In 1969, he was first down the ladder, but on Thursday he let the other passengers off first.

Then Neil Armstrong, once a strapping fighter pilot, now a 79-year-old with wispy white hair and a patterned cardigan, stepped off a Great Lakes flight from Denver and used giant novelty scissors to cut a blue and yellow ribbon.

He stood next to former mayor John Micetic, who helped get the airport started in the ‘80s. It was later announced that the airport would be renamed the Telluride Regional Airport at Micetic Field.

The famously dicey runway had been closed from April 7 through Nov. 4 and smoothed out with dirt and rocks and $22 million, most of which came from grants.

It was one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for the Telluride Airport, North America’s highest commercial airport, which finally got rid of its concave runway. After the final phase of construction is complete — Airport Manager Rich Nutall says they’re aiming for the end of next summer — the airport will accommodate commercial planes that can hold twice as many people as the ones that can land now.

A private man, Neil Armstrong very rarely attends events like these, his wife Carol said. At a reception that evening with wine and cheese and chinking wine glasses, Armstrong gave a surprisingly moving speech filled with nostalgia for the old, quirky runway, which he always called “she.”

“No one who had ever dealt with her could ever forget her,” Armstrong said. “Some called her the old 927, some called her other names.”

Many Telluriders have love for that crooked old runway. Before it came in in 1987, built for $4.5 million, Telluride was about as hard to get to as the moon. The airport turned Telluride from just another Colorado mining town into one of those towns that seem to belong to the world, like Martha’s Vineyard or Key West or Aspen. “It put us on the map,” said Micetic.

Partly because of the airport, Telluride is the kind of place where celebrities come and World Cup snowboarders race and an American legend like Armstrong goes to live out his walks-and-talks-and-eats-breakfast phase. And, 500 or 1,000 years from now, when people will no longer care about today’s political minutae, they will remember Neil Armstrong, and the time when Americans first stepped on the moon. And, in some footnote of some biography about the man who is our Columbus (except better, because Armstrong knew where he was going), it will note that he loved a small town high up in the San Juans, and the high-altitude runway that let him travel here two or three times a year from his home in Ohio.

“She will still hold the high ground, she will still have the grand vistas,” he said. “Travelers on the great silver birds ... will still be welcomed by her, and they’ll be glad they came.”

The Telluride Airport is Open for Business!

Airport open after nine month runway renovation
Project leveled runway; next phase will widen safety areas
By Ben Fornell, Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, November 5, 2009 8:43 PM CST

The Telluride Regional Airport is now open after a nine-month renovation project that leveled the runway — removing both the 16-foot dip in the center of the strip, and the airport’s reputation as one of the nation’s hairiest landings.

“It was sporty,” said Chip Taft, a pilot with Mountain Aviation out of Denver who’s been flying charter flights into Telluride for 39 years. “The wheels would leave the ground on takeoff, and the runway would try to come up and meet us.”

Taft is talking about the difference of 60 feet between the East and West ends of the runway before the leveling project got under way. Taft flies second home owners and vacationers into Telluride regularly, and said the renovations have made his life easier.

“I think they did a fantastic job,” Taft said of the new runway.

It was no small task, either. Beginning on April 7, the airport shut down for nine months during which more than 1 million yards of earth were taken from the east and west ends of the runway to backfill the dip in the center.

The west end was lowered by 30 feet and the east end by 14 feet to raise the center of the strip 16 feet — all to mitigate the nearly 2 percent overall grade of the runway. Today, the grade ranges from 0 to 1.5 percent overall.

Leveling the runway cost more than $24 million, $23 million of which came from a Federal Aviation Administration grant. An additional 5 percent was provided by the airport in addition to a $250,000 grant from the Division of Aeronautics.

The project isn’t done yet, according to Rich Nuttall, the airport manager. In June, he hopes to begin work on the next phase, which will widen the safety area on the east end of the runway as they have on the west end.

Those bits of tarmac would be used in the event of an air emergency to stage fire and ambulance crews.

That work is expected to cost an additional $35 million, which the airport hopes will be financed through another FAA grant.

Nuttall said the renovation has been a long time coming and that the new facility will be a boon to Telluride’s tourist economy.

“Economically, it’s very important. We are a resort town, and people like to fly right to their destination,” Nuttall said. “Being seven minutes from the ski slopes is much nicer than riding in a van for an hour and a half from Montrose.”

Telluride Regional Airport Runway Project On Schedule
Released by the Telluride/Montrose Regional Air Organization
September 23, 2009

The Telluride Airport runway reconstruction project started on April 7 and is scheduled to be completed on time: November 4th, 2009.

Taking the lead, Rich Nuttall, airport manager, said “The earthwork has been completed. It’s exciting to see the new asphalt in place and the runway taking shape. This is economic stimulus in real time. This robust investment will secure the future of Telluride Airport and put us back on the map as a state-of-the-art facility. We look forward to seeing you all back up here flying this winter.” This phase of the runway project included the removal of the existing runway and a great reduction in grades to increase safety and meet FAA standards. The construction results in the west end of the runway being lowered 30 feet the center of the runway (dip) being raised 16 feet, and the east end of the runway being lowered 14 feet. In addition, the safety areas have been widened by 100 feet on half the runway and all new runway lighting will be installed. This new runway will put Telluride in a new light for private jet owners as well as commercial flight operations. It will provide a much safer take-off and landing environment! The final phase of this project will include widening the remaining runway safety areas and installing the Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS) at the end of each runway. We are anticipating that this last phase can be completed in 2011 if funding becomes available. We are not anticipating an airport closure for the final construction phase. For any additional information, please contact Mr. Richard W. Nuttall, Airport Manager at 970-728-5313.

Airport nets $21.5 million in Grants
Money will pay for safety improvements
By Katie Klingsporn
Associate Editor
Published: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 8:48 PM CST

The Telluride Regional Airport has been awarded a pile of money in federal grants to improve runway safety and buy a new aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle.

The airport netted two U.S. Department of Transportation grants totaling roughly $21.5 million. The biggie, for $21 million, will go toward the runway project scheduled for this summer. And the smaller one, for roughly $500,000, will pay for a new fire and rescue truck.

The news was announced on Monday by the office of Congressman John T. Salazar, who worked to get the grants funneled to Telluride.

“I know this funding will help the Telluride airport continue to improve its ability to provide safe and efficient air service for residents and pilots in and around San Miguel County,” Salazar said in a statement. “I am proud to have supported these efforts and I will continue to work to provide necessary funding for projects like these, projects that will improve our infrastructure and strengthen our economy.”

The grants will help Telluride replace its 32-year-old crash fire rescue truck, and, more significantly, complete the second half its two-phase runway project, which aims to bring its landing strip up to existing Federal Aviation Administration standards.

This $54 million renovation, which Airport Manager Rich Nuttall has been working on for nine years, is designed to flatten the runway (which currently has a dip in it) and widen and flatten the safety areas to the left and right of the runway, but it also includes drainage work and better lighting.

The first phase of the project, which entailed stabilizing the dip area with a buttress wall and fill-in, took place last summer.

The second phase of the project will entail removing the existing runway, grinding the grade down and then installing a new runway with new lighting.

That work is tentatively scheduled for April 7 through Nov. 2, though the work schedule is subject to change based on how the bids come in, Nuttall said. The construction will close down the airport.

In a statement released by Salazar’s office, Nuttall thanked the congressman.