The Wichita Airport Authority has received formal notification it will receive $8.6 million in grant funding for the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport to preserve and extend the life of its longest runway.
“Preserving and extending the life of one of our most important infrastructure assets – our longest runway—is necessary if we are to continue to attract larger and heavier commercial aircraft,” said Brad Christopher, Assistant Director of Airports. “This infrastructure is also critical to our important aircraft manufacturing tenant stakeholders – Bombardier and Textron.”
The airport was previously notified of a grant award of $6,660,000 for replacing the center 50-feet of the runway’s center “keel” section. The grant announced today, combined with the previous grant, will allow the airport to undertake critical and much needed rehabilitation and replacement of its longest runway. The overall grant awards for runway improvements and rehabilitation is over $15 million.
Christopher said he anticipates the life of the runway will be extended by roughly 15 years because of these combined grants.
“Wichita is an important economic hub, and the ICT Airport plays a vital role in connecting the Air Capital of the World to the aviation industry and beyond,” said U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, (R-Kan.). “I was pleased to provide support for this project, which will help extend the airport's capabilities, and I look forward to working with community leaders to see it through to completion.”
Late last year, Sen. Moran and the rest of the Kansas congressional delegation sent a letter of support to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao in support of the grant request submitted by the Wichita Airport Authority.
