$5.8-million project achieves federal compliance

BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

DEBORD — The Big Sandy Regional Airport will keep its 5,000-foot runway. Contractors are putting the finishing touches on a project that brought the runway safety areas (RSA) into compliance with current Federal Aviation Administration standards.

Construction on the $5.8-million project began in July 2020, and the runway became fully operational this month.

Big Sandy was built in 1984 with a 5,000-foot runway. The struggle began after federal standards changed in the 1990s, requiring the RSA at each end of the runway be a minimum of 300 feet. The airport in Debord was just a little short on the RSA, with 200 feet on one end and 234 feet on the other.

BSRA manager Gary Wayne Cox said the easy answer would have been to shorten the runway to 4,800 feet, which the FAA wanted to do.

“The federal government has been trying to shorten our runway for the last 15 years,” said Cox.

But shortening the runway was not the answer for Cox.

“There are lots of jets that can’t land on a 4,499-foot runway,” he said, “but they can on a 5,000-foot.”

As the fight to preserve the 5,000-foot runway continued, with no money in hand, it began to look like BSRA might have to concede and shorten the runway. Then Cox got a call from FAA administrator Phillip Braden in Memphis telling him about a grant opportunity.

“He told me about the $1 billion that former President Donald Trump put in his aviation budget for non-metropolitan airports,” said Cox. “Safety got top priority, and he knew how we had been struggling to try to save our 5,000-foot runway. He said, ‘You need to get a plan in place and apply for this money because this will be your last chance to save 5,000 feet at Big Sandy.’ So the engineers put together this plan, and he sent it to Washington.”

In May 2019, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded Big Sandy the funding to extend the RSA and save the 5,000-foot-runway.

“There were only two airports in Kentucky that received that federal supplemental money,” said Cox. “Falmouth Airport’s runway was slipping off, and they got a big portion of it too.”

To meet the FAA requirement, BSRA’s project included constructing retaining walls to extend the RSA at each end of the runway and a road that tunnels under the south RSA. Attaining 300 feet on the north end meant shifting the runway and threshold south by 50 feet. Runway rehabilitation included new asphalt, paint, sealing and lighting.

“We have 301 feet of overrun on the other end and 300 feet on this end,” said Cox, pointing to the fenced-in area at the end of the asphalt at the south end of the runway.

The object-free RSA will protect aircraft in the event of accidental overruns.

A 200-foot-long tunnel under the south RSA provides an access roadway “big enough for a Caterpillar 777 rock truck to go through.” Cox explained the deed from Pocahontas Land Company donating the property to BSRA in 1981 stipulates access around the airport.

“To be able to use the area from valley to valley, we had to go under the safety overrun,” he said. “That’s why the tunnel is here.”

The tunnel could accommodate a connection to new highway construction.

“You could have a two-lane highway going straight through it and not have to mess with the airport anymore,” noted Cox. 

The runway currently has a coat of “temporary” paint.

“They’ll be coming back and putting a full coat on it soon,” said Cox. “Look at how pretty it is. It’s beautiful. There isn’t a prettier airport in the state of Kentucky.”

Cox said all that remains on the RSA project is the final paint on the runway, surfacing the road through the tunnel and sowing grass.

In the meantime, Big Sandy also constructed nine new hangars.

“We could not build those hangars until we fixed this safety area problem,” said Cox. “The FAA has let us spend our airport improvement money on safety only for the last 15 years. They wouldn’t let us spend it on anything the airport could make money on, like those hangars, because we hadn’t addressed our safety overrun problem. But they worked with us to try to get this fixed. They understood the importance of 5,000 feet.”

The airport had banked almost $1 million while waiting for the go-ahead to build the hangars.

“When we bid it off, because of all this COVID stuff, the price went to $1.4 million,” said Cox. “The state of Kentucky said, ‘You guys need this really bad,’ and kicked in $400,000.”

One hangar currently serves as a painting facility for web video star Dave Sparks aka Heavy D Sparks of the Discovery Channel’s “Diesel Brothers.” The crew was busy working on a Blackhawk helicopter Friday morning.

“The hangars are important because the airport board can now make money,” commented Cox, adding that grants require matching funds. “You have to make money to get money. The hangars will be a revenue source, and the board will get to keep all the money from the new hangars.”

Most days, the 67-year-old Cox works from daylight to dark, selling fuel, mowing grass and taking care of the airport. He especially enjoys his family’s company as they frequent his daughter Lauren Runyon’s Cloud 9 Café at the airport.

“What’s not to love?” he asked.

In 2020, Cox added another venture to occupy his days. Big Sandy Backroads offers chauffeured sport/side-by-side adventure from the airport into breathtaking views of the landscape and chance encounters with wild horses, elk and other wildlife that frequent Martin and Pike counties. For more information, call Cox at the Big Sandy Regional Airport at 606-298-5930.