Bradford Regional Airport will receive $950,000 in federal
funding to help build a new parallel taxiway connecting the
facility’s terminal with its main runway.

The announcement was made on Wednesday by U.S. Rep. John
Peterson, R-Pa.

Officials said a portion of the funding will also be used for
the acquisition of an additional snow removal vehicle and the
procurement of a new free-standing power generator – items listed
as high priorities for airport officials.

“Today’s (Wednesday) grant announcement is good news for the
Bradford Airport and even better news for the thousands of people
and dozens of businesses throughout the region who have come to
depend upon its quality air service for their traveling needs,”
Peterson said.

“I’ve said many times that having access to reliable air service
in our part of the world isn’t simply a matter of convenience, it’s
a matter of necessity if we expect to attract new jobs and hold
onto the high-paying ones we already have. This grant represents a
strong commitment toward the continued success of air service at
Bradford.”

The discretionary grant is distributed by the U.S. Department of
Transportation’s Airport Improvement Program.

Officials said the taxiway represents a “safety measure” along
with an infrastructure improvement.

“It’s just another way to make the airport more viable,”
Frungillo said, adding the taxiway will be located on the “32” end
of Runway 14-32 – the main runway for commercial air traffic. That
portion of the runway is nearest to Route 59 heading toward
Smethport.

Frungillo said the taxiway will be asphalt and will measure
between 2,000 and 2,500 feet long and be 50 feet wide. It will be
located on the side of the runway closest to the old Forest Oil
hangar.

“Right now, planes are taxiing back on the runways,” Frungillo
said. “This new taxiway will allow them to come down to the
terminal off the main runway.”

During an airport authority meeting earlier this month, Bob
Cummins Construction Co. of Bradford was named the low bidder for
the work, which also includes the rehabilitation of a runway and an
electrical vault.

Cummins’ bid was $1.3 million; all told, there were three other
bidders for the project.

“Lee Simpson (the authority’s engineer) will recommend awarding
the project at the next meeting,” Frungillo said, noting it will
likely be next year before the project is completed. “They might be
able to do a little work in the fall, but that will also depend on
how fast the funding gets released.”

The airport has two runways available for commercial and
civilian air traffic, with the longest one measuring 6,309
feet.

This is not the first time the airport has benefited from AIP
funding. The program helped with funding for the airport’s
multi-million water and sewer line extension project through
Lafayette Township to the airport, among capital improvement
projects.

Next to the federal Essential Air Service program – which
ensures that airports that received commercial air service before
deregulation in 1978 continue to receive it – the AIP program is of
utmost importance to sustaining the airport’s operations on a
yearly basis.

Each year, the airport is eligible to receive federal
entitlement and discretionary funding. The airport is
“grandfathered” into the entitlement funding, which means a
facility has to have more than 10,000 enplanements – or number of
people flying out of an airport – in a given year.

While that figure went down after Sept. 11, 2001, the airport
was above that level prior to that date, so it’s allowed to
continue being in the program. The airport is eligible to receive
$1 million as part of the program, which includes 95 percent
federal funding, with 2.5 percent coming from the state and another
2.5 percent from the local level.

“Tom and his staff have put in a lot of work over the past
several years to make the Bradford Airport a first-rate, top-tier
facility,” Peterson said. “This grant will help that work continue,
and I have no doubt that the airport will continue to be a strong
force in the region’s economic development efforts in the years to
come.”

Last year, the airport received a portion of $850,000 for the
creation of a runway safety area at the end of the “14” end of the
strip; the area cut down the length of the runway from its original
6,500 feet.