6/8/2010 - Thomasville Chosen for Airport
THOMASVILLE AL- from the Thomasville Times by Arthur McLean, Editor- The Alabama Department of Transportation has chosen a location near Thomasville as the site for a regional airport designed to serve Clarke County and parts of Wilcox, Marengo and Choctaw Counties. A number of communities, including Thomasville, Grove Hill and Clarke County are expected to partner and share the local cost of building the airport.
The total cost is estimated at more than $21 million, but if the Federal Aviation Administration approves the new airport, federal and state money could pay up to 97.5 percent of the total cost. That would leave Thomasville and its partners sharing about $500,000 in local costs to build the new airport. The site for the proposed airport is located just south of the Louisiana-Pacific OSB mill in the North Clarke Industrial Park.
Garver Engineering was hired by the state to perform the site selection process. Initially, 23 potential sites were selected that narrowed the candidates down to three leading sites. Garver used a number of factors in selecting the site, including a central location about 30 minutes drive time from the major population centers in the region, potential for expansion and other factors. All existing airports in the area were ruled out as potential sites because of the costs involved in expanding them, Garver's engineers said.
The proposed airport will have a 5,000 ft. runway, a partial parallel taxiway, the capability for aircraft to perform instrument-guided approaches, a weather system, refueling system, a terminal building, hangars and parking. The runway would be large enough to handle most small corporate jets.
ALDOT's aeronautics bureau chief John C. Eagerton said airports like this one are critical to economic development. "Airports similar to the proposed new general aviation facility are used directly by companies who employ one out of every three people working in Alabama," he said. "In the calendar year 2001, there were 95 locations announced for distributors, manufacturers, headquarter operations and selected service industries. Each of those facilities was located within 17 miles of a general aviation airport."
Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day said just the potential of such an airport being located in Thomasville was enough to impress a recent major manufacturing company that is considering Thomasville as its next location.- the
Thomasville Times by Arthur McLean, Editor as republished in the
EDPA NewsFlash
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