Runway at Caldwell airport will get new asphalt

Caldwell Industrial Airport, Idaho’s busiest, has won a $2.148 million federal Airport Improvement Program grant to replace its 31-year-old cracking asphalt runway.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced the grant June 8 as part of a $677 million program that awarded 241 grants to 346 airport infrastructure projects. The Caldwell airport was the only Idaho airport to get a grant in this allotment, according to the FAA. The airport handles the most departures and arrivals of any Idaho airport.

The airport will remove the 4-inch layer of runway asphalt installed in 1987 and replace it with two two-inch layers of asphalt, airport manager Rob Oates said.

The work will start in mid-August and close the 5,500-foot runway for seven to eight weeks, but flights can continue to take off and land at Caldwell, he added.

“The taxiway will be a temporary runway,” Oates said. “For most normal things, we will operate during daytime hours but nothing at night.”

The taxiway served as the runway when the airport opened in 1976, he noted.

The Caldwell airport had 148,089 takeoffs and landings in 2017, more than any other Idaho airport, said Reid Hollinshead, spokesman at the Idaho Transportation Department.

The Caldwell airport is the busiest in Idaho because many pilots living in Boise, Meridian, Eagle and Star base their two- and four-seat fixed-wing aircraft at Caldwell, saying it is easier to operate out of Caldwell as there are no passenger planes, cargo planes and military aircraft competing for airspace. Caldwell also racks up many takeoffs and landings through the Silverhawk Aviation Academy, which offers federally funded pilot training for veterans, Oates said.

The city of Caldwell will match the FAA grant with about $187,000, and ITD’s Division of Aeronautics, pending approval, will match $122,819, Hollinshead said.

JUB Engineering of Boise designed the runway project. Idaho Materials and Construction is the general contractor.

The Idaho Press first reported this story.