A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Nov. 5 at the Perryville Regional Airport to recognize the opening of a newly renovated runway that has been years in the making and took several months for the work to be completed.
According to Perryville City Administrator Brent Buerck, the city has known for more than a decade, that financial investments would have to be made to the runway to keep the airport viable.
“The runway dated back to World War II, when it was originally built,” Buerck said. “While it was long — over 7,000 feet long — it wasn’t very thick, so it was showing its age. We had been working for a very long time with MoDOT Aviation, who was fabulous, and the FAA, who we had to do some convincing on the right length. Originally, it was suggested we should cut it in half. We did some analysis with our engineers at Crawford Murphy and Tilly and made a very solid argument that we needed to have almost 6,500 feet.
“So, 6,483 is the length of the new runway, and it wouldn’t have happened without the support of our elected officials at the state and national level — and also MoDOT Aviation and the FAA. We’re very appreciative that we finally got this project done. The overwhelming majority of the cost was paid with state and federal dollars. The local contribution was quite small compared to what we were able to get as a community.
Between this year’s runway — which was nearly $11 million, and last year’s ram improvements, which were almost $4 million — I think but a half-million dollars or so was state and federal funding support, and we appreciate their support.”
