Potential for a $34 Million Pangborn Runway Reconstruction

Nov. 3—EAST WENATCHEE — "The bulk of the runway needs to be reconstructed." Dave Mitchell, Ardurra Group Inc. engineer and northwest aviation services lead, overviewed the daunting task with the Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority.

He pointed to a color-coded map from the Washington State Department of Transportation showing the cracks and crevices on Pangborn Memorial Airport's main runway. The map, from 2018, showed the runway's 2023 projected condition and was part of a workshop Oct. 24 discussing what could be a $34 million overhaul of the 82-year-old runway. The last major work on runway 12-30 was completed in 1999, more than 20 years ago, with 20 years the maximum for pavement life, per the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Based on that (a WSDOT inspection/map), they (WSDOT) developed what we call a pavement condition index, which is a one to 100 scale," Mitchell said. "100 would be brand new pavement that's in perfect condition with no visual defects. The older part of the runway was a 50 in 2018, which the classification for that is poor. That doesn't mean it's unusable, obviously, it just means that it needs some attention, basically."

In 2023, that portion was predicted at 40, or very poor, but Mitchell said "there's no issue with the safety of using that runway at this point. It just means this runway needs some attention soon."

A fail rating would be around 15 or 20, he said, when a runway was producing a lot of rocks and FOD (foreign object damage) and shouldn't be used.

Portions of the 7,000-by-150-foot runway also slope from one end to the other, he said, which were called "shed" sections. The FAA standard is for runways to be "crowned," or curved, so water drains down both sides rather than one. Having a shed runway wasn't as bad in this region as it would be on the west side, he said, where more water would be on the runway, causing hydroplaning. However, he said the runway should be corrected if it's getting rebuilt, per FAA wishes.

Port CEO Jim Kuntz said the FAA would provide money in stages: $1 million in 2024, $18 million in 2025, and $12 million in 2028. If the port gave a 10% match, the total would be $20 million in 2025 and about $13.3 million in 2028. More funding might come from grants, he said, but it was unclear. And, the port could carry a lot of debt between payments from the FAA, he said. Mitchell noted the FAA wants bids in early 2025, with which he wasn't comfortable because the project wasn't designed yet. The port will use Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds to start the project, designing, as those are available now, and Airport Improvement Program grants for snow removal equipment, he said. The FAA doesn't have to wait for authorization every year to get BIL funds, he added.

Since the runway has favorable winds 95% of the time, the FAA will not fund a crosswind runway, such as a grass landing strip, Kuntz said. The former 4,460-by-75-foot crosswind runway, 7-25, was closed in 2009 due to deteriorating pavement condition and "goes into history," Kuntz said.

"The FAA doesn't care how many runways you have. They're just willing to pay for one," Mitchell said.

"First of all, 'What are we going to build?'" Mitchell added. The northwest end of the runway was still in very good condition, he said, so would it be reconstructed and if so, would the FAA pay for it? The pavement was laid 15 years ago and the runway extension was added in 2016, so the FAA might not think those were old enough to rebuild. The northwest end of the runway is seven years old and in excellent condition, but built in the shed style. If it had to be rebuilt in a crown style, it would create more expense and take more time because the northeast side would need to be lowered.

The runway's width was another question, Mitchell said, on whether it should be 100 feet or stay 150 feet. The FAA funded what it deemed to be "justified," among other things, he said, so if a large international plane wanted to fly out of Wenatchee, the FAA would widen the runway at that point and not sooner. Aircraft currently using the runway could use a 100-foot-wide runway, said Trent Moyers, port director of airports. The FAA determined that width was what was needed, Mitchell noted, so the port would need to potentially justify the need for 150 feet.

Weight limit was another consideration, but Mitchell said the runway's 192,000-pound limit would allow for heavier planes as long as they didn't land as often, like a C-130.

"The bigger issue is going to be weight," said commissioner Richard DeRock. "because all of the alternative fuels; need more of it to get the same distance... Electrification, you have the same issue, the batteries are heavier, so weight I think is probably much more of a factor... with the rebuild."

"The weight issue is a real issue with electric aircraft because the batteries are heavy and that is just going to offset payload, you know, and the designers have to decide if it still makes sense," Mitchell said. "There are a lot of advantages to electric aircraft. They're much cheaper to maintain, a tenth as expensive to maintain from what I've read, because they're not complicated. They're electric motors with a fan on the front of them."

He added electric planes were likely still too wide and heavy to become common enough to land at Pangborn, which would justify the FAA paying for thicker concrete.

How long and when the airport would close wasn't decided, but during summer 2025 for 30 days seemed a likely choice, he said, so the port didn't have to prepare one of the taxiways as a runway, taking more time and possibly money. Prepping a taxiway for general aviation planes could be more viable, he said.

The worry, though, was pleasing commercial fliers and airlines for potentially 30 days.

"Breaking the availability of service for something we're trying to market additional services seems clumsy," DeRock said. "And it also gets to that revenue guarantee in my mind. We're throwing a lot of money and trying to make commercial service viable, and then we're going to say, 'Yeah, but we're going to shut our airport for a significant chunk of time'... And I'm not hearing an option that makes sense for commercial. I'm not saying we can't do that. I fundamentally kind of wonder, if we have to make the decision to shut the runway, for say, a month, do we stop some of the investment decisions we've been making over the last couple of years on the airport because we're going to be causing a market shift... What is that impact on the boardings?"

"Thirty days feels like a year to a commercial passenger," said commissioner JC Baldwin. "But it is just 30 days."

"Most airports, like yours, only have one runway," Mitchell chimed in. "And every 20 years or so they gotta go through this pain of closing it to fix it. The airlines understand that."

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