Mar. 25—K-State men's basketball fans can fly out of Manhattan Regional Airport next week if the team makes it into the Final Four — as long as they're not traveling on Wednesday or Thursday.
The airport will close at 6 p.m. Tuesday so crews from Clarkson Construction can outline parts of the runway in need of repairs over the following two days. Commercial and general aviation flights will be suspended until 7 a.m. Friday.
Manhattan Regional Airport director Brandon Keazer said American Airlines will operate flights up until Tuesday's closure. Following the closure, crews will begin breaking down the asphalt where both the airport's runways meet.
An airport project years in the making comes as the Kansas State University men's basketball team competes in the Elite Eight in New York City.
The Wildcats play against 9-seed Florida Atlantic at 5:09 p.m. Saturday in Madison Square Garden for a spot in the Final Four, which will be played in Houston next Saturday. If the Wildcats win that game and make it into the Final Four, Keazer said fans would be able to fly to Houston on Monday, Tuesday, Friday or Saturday next week to make the game.
The team will likely return to the Little Apple on Sunday following the Elite Eight game. Keazer said it'll be the team's choice on when their charter flight departs for Houston, but they will have to leave before or after the scheduled closure.
"I'm really hoping the Wildcats pull out another win," Keazer said. "It's a very exciting time."
The Manhattan City Commission chose Clarkson Construction of Kansas City, Mo., as the lead contractor with a low bid of $26.85 million. In July, the FAA announced it would give the airport a $36.1 million grant, which the city commission officially accepted. A lower-than-expected construction bid meant both the federal organization and the city government will pay less for the project which will "rubblize" the runway's concrete.
Rubblization does not involve complete reconstruction of the runway, but it does, in essence, break up and smooth out the runway surface and allow crews to apply new layers of asphalt and concrete along the 150-foot-wide runway. The plan is to lay a 5-inch asphalt base after the pavement is rubblized, then crews will apply a 10.5-inch concrete surface. Other outside sections will get a 12-inch surface with no base.
The plan also calls for the reconstruction of the secondary runway, as well as adjacent intersections and five taxiways. One taxiway will be removed because of a change in FAA design standards, and more lights and navigational aids will be placed along the runway.
The total cost for the project is $34.8 million, including planning and design. The FAA paid for $28.5 million of the project, a U.S. Department of Defense program's share is $3.196 million, and the city is paying $3.2 million, which will be paid through general obligation bonds.
The last time the runways were repaved was in 1979; both runways have exceeded their 20-year useful lives. The runway construction master plan was started in July 2018 and officially completed in fall 2020.
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