FAA awards $19.6 million to replace worn-out lighting and signs at Haines Airport

Haines Airport's runway lighting, taxiway signs and rotating beacon are set to be replaced under a $19.6 million federal grant the Federal Aviation Administration signed Sept. 16. The FAA's award record says each of them has reached the end of its useful life.

The grant went to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, which owns the airport. With about $1 million from the state and other non-federal sources, the project totals about $20.6 million.

The work covers 4,000 feet of the runway and about 2,150 feet of four taxiways, with new lighting and signs on the taxiways. It also adds a new wind cone and segmented circle, the ground markers that show pilots wind direction and traffic patterns, replaces the rotating beacon and builds a 1,300-square-foot building for snow removal equipment. The state's project page adds drainage work, a taxilane to the public helipad, a rebuilt helipad and new lights that mark the runway's ends.

Construction is scheduled to start in 2027. The state's construction safety and phasing plan calls for keeping the runway open as much as possible, with some work done at night. It allows two 24-hour closures to set up temporary half-width runways and one 48-hour full closure. The state's invitation to bid estimated the job at $10 million to $20 million and required it to be finished by Oct. 31, 2028.

It's the airport's second FAA grant in nine weeks. In July, the agency awarded about $783,000 to replace snow removal equipment, including a snowblower the record also describes as worn out. The last grant of comparable size for the airport was about $11.2 million in 2017, according to federal spending records.

At a department advertising schedule update July 20, project manager Kirk Miller said the project had been certified that week and was being prepared for bidding.