Mount Olive runway to be extended sooner
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on November 2, 2004 1:58 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Mount Olive will be able to start the second part of its runway extension sooner than expected. The airport runway will proceed north this fall rather than next spring.
Mount Olive town commissioners approved another contract to AIPAC Atlantic of Kinston on Monday night.
This one, for $212,000, is to extend the runway north by 400 feet.
Two weeks ago the town board held a special meeting to award a $152,000 contract to AIPAC to extend the runway south toward town by 200 feet.
The extension project is required by the state and will allow the airport to handle larger jets. When the three-phase project is completed, the runway will have been extended from 3,750 feet to 5,000 feet.
Nobody expected the work to be done so quickly, Airport Committee Chairman Bob Quinn told the town board. This is the time of year when the weather doesn't cooperate with construction projects as well as it has.
"We thought it would be next March before we could do the other end," he said.
AIPAC will probably be finished with the southern extension Thursday, he said.