MORGANTOWN — When the Federal Aviation Administration signed off on the Morgantown Municipal Airport runway extension in 2019, the project was anticipated to take five years at a cost of $50 million.
Today, the cost to lengthen the runway by 1,001 feet is projected closer to $65 million and the timeline is up in the air.
In November, Morgantown City Council approved a $1,992,470 bid for Phase 2 of the project, which primarily entails land clearing and excavation.
But concerns are mountain among city officials about funding for Phases 3 and 4, previously estimated at approximately $13 million and $20 million, respectively.
During a recent update to state legislators, airport Director Jon Vrabel said the FAA allocated the city $3.5 million for Phase 3. Another $1 million will come via federal earmarks.
Vrabel said the city has also applied for $6 million in Abandoned Mine Lands Economic Revitalization dollars in the hope of packaging the largest possible project.
“The more we can put together in one project the better we are. We can get more done, plus we get savings. The bigger the project the more savings we get so we’re hoping to get the funding up front,” he said, adding, “We haven’t been too successful, unfortunately.”
Vrabel said the runway extension is viewed as an expansion project, meaning it’s getting bumped by projects across the state deemed more safety-focused by the FAA.
Smaller allocations mean smaller projects. Smaller projects mean a longer timeline, and, as Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli pointed out, time is big money on a project this size.
“The longer the project goes out, the costs just go up exponentially,” Muzzarelli said.
It’s frustrating, Muzzarelli continued, to meet all the FAA’s requirements and watch the funds go elsewhere knowing the economic impact the extension project would have for Morgantown and beyond.
“The longer [the project] extends, you start to get a lot of negative attention. ‘You said this was going to take five years and now it’s 10,’ or ‘You said it was going to be this much money and now it’s 150% more.’ That makes it seem like you’re doing something wrong, but it’s just because it’s taking so long to get done because the funds aren’t being allocated,” she said.
And that starts at the top.
City officials asked the lawmakers to help push Washington to get more aviation money for West Virginia as a whole.
Vrabel noted the $13 million requested for Phase 3 would likely represent most, if not all, of the state’s federal allocation.
“Until we get more funds coming into West Virginia and the state as a whole, and we are made a priority, we’re always going to get the scraps,” Muzzarelli said.
