Enid Woodring Regional Airport Set To Receive Several Upgrades

Feb. 11—Enid Woodring Regional Airport is in the midst of major renovations that are decades in the making. There are four major projects set to take place in the coming year at approximately $10 million in construction costs.

Airport Director Keston Cook said the renovations will benefit civilians as well as the mission of Vance Air Force Base. He said two of the four projects are specific to the needs of Vance.

The first renovation is reconstruction of the crosswind runway, which is set to start in the near future.

"That will be taking our asphalt crosswind runway ... currently 13-31, and tearing it fully out and replacing it with concrete," Cook said. "It will still be 3,150 feet; it will be slightly narrowed from 108 feet to 75 feet."

Also among the upgrades will be the construction of a 120- by 120-foot, joint-use hangar, which will serve to shelter both military and civilian aircraft. It will be placed next to a hangar of the same size, but Cook said the new one will have only one door.

The south ramp is set to be reconstructed, as well as hangars on the south ramp. Cook said that is where the majority of the military aircraft are parked, and that particular ramp is deteriorating.

"It's probably the worst condition of all of our ramps right now," Cook said. "And so we'll be going down there and tearing out all of that concrete, the hangars that are on that ramp as well. So it will be a full concrete replacement of that ramp."

Cook said the new hangars will allow for twice as many aircraft to be stored, which will come in handy when pilots divert to Woodring due to hazardous weather conditions. He said they are the first new hangars at the airport in more than 50 years.

He said the crosswind runway reconstruction will finish by the late summer or fall, and the joint-use hangar, south ramp reconstruction and south ramp hangar construction, which will occur at the same time, are expected to take more than a year, with summer 2024 being a realistic time for completion.

"It will absolutely be a benefit for everyone. The joint-use hangar, that's a transient hangar, it's used both by military and civilians," Cook said. "So we'll be able to put transients in there, military aircraft in there. The crosswind runway, not a huge use for Vance, only in an emergency. But previously in the summer, we had to physically take a mower out there and mow that runway because of the amount of grass intrusion, and replacing that runway with concrete, it's a much higher quality and will last a lot longer. With the FAA moving away from crosswind runways, it's probably the last opportunity we'll ever have to rebuild that with federal funding, unless they change their guidelines or their priorities."

Upgrades essentially will allow Woodring to serve as another runway for aircraft from Vance, expecting to further strengthen the bond between the regional airport and the base. Cook said the current condition of the south ramp limits the type of aircraft that can be stored there.

"With that south ramp, previously with the condition that it is in, we really only limited it to like the T-1s," Cook said. "We wouldn't try to park T-6s down there or T-38s. So this will open up that ramp for full access to them all the time.

"This is a real exciting time. It's a lot of projects coming together all at one time. Roughly about $10 million worth of improvements all in one calendar year."

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