Anniston Regional Airport Receives $4 Million for Maintenance

Anniston will receive $4 million in federal money to be used improving Anniston Regional Airport’s runway.

The airport has supported everything from small private craft to freight planes, as well as military jets, in recent years, city planner Toby Bennington said Friday.

The city applied for a grant from the state Department of Transportation in May, when then-City Manager Jay Johnson said that cracks had been developing in the runway. The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday $485 million in nationwide aviation spending for airport improvements.

“It’s broadly used, and it’s truly earning its name,” Bennington said of the airport. “Now it’s time for the runway to be refurbished and strengthened.”

The Jacksonville State University football team flies from there, he said, and in May this year a Boeing 737 made an emergency landing at the airstrip. Commercial flights often use the airport as a stop when Birmingham and Atlanta airports are jammed with air traffic, and it’s becoming a popular charter destination when races are run at the Talladega Superspeedway.

All told, Anniston’s 7,000-foot-long runway has thousands of planes land on it per year, about 23,000 in 2014, according to the FAA. The city spent $83,000 in 2015 to restripe the runway, one of several projects to keep the airport in line with modern standards. Bennington said the first step in renovating the strip is to figure out what’s weak and what’s not, a task accomplished by drilling down and taking material samples.

The Huntsville office of Arkansas-based engineering firm Garver will handle those tasks in conjunction with Anniston’s public works department, he said, though the start date for work has yet to be decided.

Elaine L. Chao, federal Department of Transportation secretary, was quoted in the FAA news release as saying that a better economy had led to more air travel; the money is meant to make airports safer and reduce delays in travel. The Anniston airport doesn’t typically serve commercial flights, aside from emergency exceptions.

Civil aviation — non-military flying — makes up more than 5 percent of the country’s gross national product, according to the FAA release, accounting for $1.6 million in economic activity and 11 million jobs.

Assistant Metro Editor Ben Nunnally: 256-235-3560.

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