Sussex County Airport is making changes to how they’ll handle air traffic during the construction of their Taxiway B project.
The airport will soon require aircraft over 12-and-a-half thousand pounds to request use of the current runway at least 24 hours in advance. That’s because crews will be on part of the tarmac during the construction of the new taxiway.
Airport Manager Robert Bryant says he’ll be fielding some of those requests personally- noting the impact flights could have on project progress.
“The requests that we get the day before are going to determine the work schedule for the next day. We can’t be wasting an hour pulling men and equipment back, only to send them back into the runway safety area / object free area, only to have to pull them back 20 minutes later.” he said.
Bryant says that’ll mostly affect corporate aircraft- but not all.
“The larger turbo-prop aircraft, King Airs- which we have several of those based at our airport, and your corporate jets. Now, there are some jet aircraft that weigh less than 12,500 pounds. They’ll have unrestricted use of the runway and we’ll not have to pull men and equipment back." he said.
He noted to Sussex County Council that those larger aircraft typically only make up about 10% of the airport's commerce.
The Taxiway B project is already underway. It is expected to be completed by 2028 and will cost the county over $12 million dollars.
