MORGANTOWN — The Federal Aviation Administration, the state of West Virginia and the city of Morgantown are coming together to keep the city’s runway extension project rolling.
During its most recent regular meeting, Morgantown City Council took two actions to facilitate Phase 5 of the multiyear project.
A contract totaling $8,672,807.50 was awarded to Mountaineer Infrastructure, of Dry Fork, W.Va., for the work, which is expected to begin in October and run an estimated 350 days.
Council also voted to accept a $250,000 grant from the West Virginia Division of Multimodal Transportation and Facilities. Those funds will be added to $250,000 from the city to serve as the local match for a $9.5 million FAA grant awarded to finance Phase 5.
Airport Director Jon Vrabel said the upcoming phase will be a continuation of the work currently underway.
In September, Cast & Baker, of Canonsburg, Pa., was awarded a $9.1 million contract for Phase 4, which includes culverting an unnamed tributary that runs into Wolfe Run Creek.
“Phase 4 is putting in the encapsulation of the stream and some minimal embankment on top of it. Phase 5 comes in and puts an embankment on top of that stream enclosure and really starts building that embankment up,” Vrabel told The Dominion Post in July. “There’s an area where a retaining wall needs to be built down near Wolfe Run Road. This phase will bring the embankment up to that portion where the wall needs to be put in. Then the wall will be put in as part of Phase 6 and the embankment will continue.”
The majority of the rock needed for the upcoming construction phases is currently piled on the site of the future I-68 Commerce Park. Once that material is cleared, work can begin on the park itself.
Vrabel said he believes that’s probably a little over a year away.
The approximately 54-acre commerce park property is part of 90 acres of airport-adjacent land owned by the Monongalia County Development Authority.
Much like the runway extension is considered one of, if not the, most important efforts ever undertaken by the city, it’s believed the commerce park would be the largest development project in Morgantown’s history.
According to the city, it’s anticipated that a new tax increment finance (TIF) district will be created to fund the development of the commerce park as well as provide funding for continued capital investment in the airport.
Once envisioned as a five-phase, $50 million project, March 2026 will represent the five-year mark since construction of the runway extension began. When Phase 5 is finished sometime next year, the project will be about 45% complete.
Based largely on the flow of federal funding, the 1,001-foot extension is currently projected to take eight to 10 phases – finishing between 2028 and 2030 – and cost north of $62 million.
