HARLINGEN — Construction has begun on what will be the longest runway south of San Antonio at Valley International Airport.
Work crews are clearing farmland for a perimeter road, the first phase of the project, which will lengthen runway 17R/35L to the south from 8,301 feet to 9,400 feet. It is one of three runways at the airport.
“It was years of a lot of preparation and a lot of work and lot of cooperation between our staff and the FAA, and now it’s under way,” said Marv Esterly, director of aviation at VIA.
“They’re clearing a way for the perimeter road first, and they’re clearing the farmland and compacting it for that road,” he added. “And then they’ll come in and fence it off and then we’ll start with the drainage that goes under the runway and then we’ll start paving more runway.”
The $15.5 million project began about five years ago when airport staff began the process of creating a cost-benefit analysis to convince the Federal Aviation Administration to fund the project. The FAA picked up most of the cost, with the airport putting up some money from its passenger facility charge.
The land already was owned by the airport, although they were required to purchase additional acreage consisting of cropland to meet requirements for a runway protection zone beyond the end of the runway.
Because the airport has two other runways, 13-31 (7,257 feet) and 17L (5,949 feet), it will only cause minimal disruption to flights at the airport.
Work should take about a year, depending on weather.
A longer runway is an additional safety feature at an airport, but the primary benefactors at Valley International may well be cargo haulers.
Air freight haulers at VIA are restricted by flight rules based on runway length to just 48 percent cargo capacity, but those will be lifted when the new runway is in place.
“We’ve always talked about the airlines being restricted to 48 percent of the gross takeoff weight, the 767s,” Esterly said. “With this runway extension, we’ll be able to go up to 75 percent of the maximum gross takeoff weight, which is great, that’s normal operating procedure weight for them, so that will definitely help.”
Air cargo haulers self-limit capacity to a maximum 75 percent of maximum gross takeoff weight to reduce wear and tear on their airplanes.
