Lake Tahoe Airport runway work

unedited july 08 tahoe mt. news

By the end of the year the runway at Lake Tahoe Airport will look completely different.
The FAA called the city on June 11 asking if it would like $5.5 million for runway construction. A few phone calls later between airport Director Rick Jenkins and the feds and the amount is now at $7 million.
The state is kicking in about $175,000 and the city will contribute approximately $190,000.
Bids close July 22. Construction is expected to begin in August.
In the aviation business, runways are usually replaced or expanded. In this case it will be smaller. The width will shrink by 50 feet so it will be 100-feet wide. The length will remain the same at 8,544 feet.
The asphalt that will be removed will be replaced with porous asphalt that abuts the runway. Next to that will be restoration of the stream environmental zone.
The SEZ restoration is the city’s restitution to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency for the tree cutting brouhaha from 2006 when it felled 387 pines without a permit.
The city has wanted to resurface the runway for years, but funding was never available. The freeze-thaw factor in the winter takes its toll on asphalt.
“What we are trying to do is create a runway that has environmental benefits while at the same time satisfy our transportation needs,” Jenkins said.