The Huntingburg Regional Airport is celebrating the completion of what they’re calling “the most important mile of pavement in the region.”
The airport is sharing the final product of years of planning for airport improvements.
The project included the expansion of their runway, allowing for bigger aircrafts to use the facility and providing a place for large airplanes to refuel. The runway was expanded from 5,000 feet to 5,501 feet long and from 75 feet wide to 100 feet wide.
The airport also expanded Indiana’s first tunnel in a public airport for cars to pass through, extending it 501 feet and widening it 25 feet.
“What stands behind you is one of the first of its kind in our state aviation system where we have put the road beneath the runway,” says Marty Blake, INDOT manager of the Aeronautics Section.
Airport officials say the project allowed the airport to keep jobs local and corporate orders full by allowing corporate aircraft greater operational usage of the airport.
Several members of the community showed up to the airport’s ribbon cutting on Friday and even got the opportunity to cruise the newly paved and lengthened runway.
Jim Hunsicker, president of the DCAA told airport officials, “This is a great opportunity for the public to see first hand the most important mile of pavement in the region. This project was years in the making and the foresight of airport board members from the past, but only comes with the important partnerships of the FAA, INDOT, and our two partner contractors Weddle Brothers from Evansville and Appalachian Foothills Contracting from Lexington.”
The Huntingburg Regional Airport says this expansion should put Dubois County on the map as a fuel destination for traveling airplanes.