Kenai airport aims to reopen its main runway the week of Sept. 21

Kenai Municipal Airport expects to move flights off its temporary runway and back onto the rebuilt main runway around Sept. 21, ending four months of operations on a taxiway. Since May, aircraft have used temporary Runway 03/21, built on Taxiway A's existing 75-foot-by-6,025-foot pavement. The FAA's notice requires gravel Runway 02R/20L to stay closed whenever the temporary runway is open and operational.

Erik Jordt, an engineer with HDL Engineering Consultants, told the Kenai Airport Commission on Thursday that crews are grooving the pavement laid in August, with striping to follow. "It's very likely that we will reopen the runway sometime around the week of September 21st," he said.

The main runway closed at 11 p.m. Thursday, May 14, as Alaska News previously covered, and the FAA's domestic notice set the closure window through Sept. 30. General aviation pilots, air carriers and based tenants have worked since around altered markings, lighting and procedures, including limits on instrument approaches. The project is one of many across Alaska using federal aviation funding to replace aging pavement, lighting and drainage while airports stay open on temporary runway configurations.

Jordt put the work at 95% complete, with electrical work and pavement markings left. Airport users should watch for a construction flyer from HDL in the coming week. "We'll reach out to anybody we can, including all the air carriers and the general aviation users, just to let them know that, hey, sometime the 22nd, 23rd of September, we'll start using the main runway again," he said.

An FAA-certified flight check is required to certify the new lights. Jordt said the FAA has confirmed the airport can use its instrument flight procedures once operations shift back to the main runway, though some visibility minimum requirements may change until the parallel runway returns to normal operation.

Commissioner Paul Monega asked whether the taxiway had been measured and designated as an alternate runway, which he said an FAA airport specialist in Seattle told him would have avoided the special instrument approach work. "If the taxiway had been designated as an alternate runway, and done all the measurements, we wouldn't have gone through all the stuff with the instrument approach procedure," Monega said.

Jordt said he did not have that answer and would find out. He added that he is also interested in what it would take to permanently designate Taxiway Alpha as an alternate runway. HDL will return in October with a final update.