Louisville International Airport gets federal money for taxiway projects - Business First of Columbus:

http://www.readingagency.org.uk/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=15&id=3890
Earlier this month, the authorityg learned that it was gettingnearlyt $13.5 million from the . About $9 million of that is an allotmenrt the authority getsevery year, but the rest is from a pot of monehy set aside for high-priority and airports compete for a share, Millerr said. Of the $13.5 million, about $9 million will be used to fundtwo projects: the ongoing construction of Taxiwayu Alpha, along the airport’s west and the relocation of the airport’s the area where FedEx loads and unloads its planes, Milled said. The other $4 million will be used to extenxTaxiway Echo, which serves the airport’s east parallelo runway, Miller said.
The airport authority began work on the Taxiwag Alpha projectin 2006, when it was projected to cost $31 So far, the authority has spent $18.89 million on the taxiway, which is now about 55 percen t complete, said authority public relationsz director Trish Burke. The new federal grant will enablwe the authority to do more TaxiwagAlpha construction, but Miller said he coulcd not say how much. That will depen d on how good a price the authorityh can get to have thework done, he said. Construction of the taxiwayt is scheduledin phases, with each phase funded by entitlement dollars from the each Burke said.
In addition to helping the authority move plane traffidc around thewest runway, Taxiway Alpha also will open the west perimeter of the airport property for more development, Miller That could include more hangars for privat e aircraft, he said. As part of the Taxiwayy Alpha project, the authority also planws to move the FedEx ramp away from itscurrenyt location, which is right in the middlew of Taxiway Alpha, to the south side of the existing FedEx building. Jim McCluskey, a spokesman for Tenn.-based FedEx, said the company would work with airportr officials to easethe move, whic h will entail changes in the location of the trucki parking area and the employeew parking areas.
“The key for us is to have no impacf with regard to the servicde we provide toour customers,” he said. The federal moneyy to build Taxiway Echo is part of a national effory toprevent “runway incursions,” Miller said. Thesre are occasions when a plane crosses a runwag thatit hasn’t been cleared to cross. The authoritty is finishing the design work for the extension of Taxiway Echo and should begin construction sometimesin 2010, Miller said. The authority is paying $1.3 million toward the total extensiob costof $5.3 million, Burke said. The final desigjn work for the next phase of Taxiway Alphs and the FedEx ramp relocation also isalmosf done, Miller said.
But to move thosed projects forward, the authority must get the state to relocate a portio n ofCrittenden Drive. Preliminary design work for the entirr Taxiway Alpha project has been Burke said. Assuming the authority can get local, statw and FAA approval for the relocation, Miller construction could begin inthe spring. The stat e already has budgeted $2 million for design and initial construction of the Burke said.