Representatives from Huntsville Municipal Airport accept the Project of the Year Award in the Local/Basic Regional Airport Category by Chairman of the Texas Aviation Advisory Committee Dr. Shelly deZevallos (right) and AVN Division Director Dan Harmon (left).
At airports, safety is paramount. It’s a guiding principle on how projects are selected, designed, and built Huntsville Municipal Airport recently began a major project with the goal of improving safety while conforming to FAA standards.
Huntsville Municipal Airport is a single runway “Business Corporate” general aviation airport located in central east Texas with over 25,000 yearly operations. The 5,000-ft runway had been successfully supported by a parallel Taxiway Alpha and its four connectors for multiple decades. However, as safety requirements on the airfield evolved over time, the separation of the Taxiway and Runway became a concern, as FAA standards required the Taxiway to be relocated 100-ft further from the Runway than it had originally been constructed.
The construction project was split into three phases to minimize its impact on the airport tenants. The first 2 phases consisted of the relocation of the northern and southern thirds of the Taxiway. The relocated runway threshold subphases for work inside the Runway Safety Area were built as part of a singular project.
The third phase, consisting of the relocation of the middle third of Taxiway Alpha, broke ground in November 2022 and is slated to be completed in late March 2023. In addition to the taxiway relocation, the third phase also features the relocation of the airport’s Automated Weather Observation System.
The success of these projects would have been impossible without the continued support and coordination between the consultant, the airport, the City of Huntsville, the electric utility Entergy, TxDOT, NOAA, the NWS, and the FAA. Truly a team effort resulting in a successful, and more importantly, safer airport.