Area airports receive $12 million in state funds
By From staff reports
Published in News on June 14, 2017 7:00 AM
Two area airports will share $12 million in state funding.
The Duplin County Airport will receive $4 million for runway widening and improved lighting while the Kinston Regional Airport will get $8 million for runway and taxiway repaving.
They are among the 11 airports across North Carolina that will receive funding following the approval of $35.4 million in state funding for aviation projects by the N.C. Board of Transportation.
"Airports are a critical part of North Carolina's transportation system," said N.C. Department of Transportation's Division of Aviation Director Bobby Walston.
"Completing these projects will increase the safety of these facilities while also maintaining the link these airports provide our state to the national and global economies."
Other projects include:
* Albert J. Ellis (Jacksonville) Airport lighting, signs and electrical vault replacement, $1.4 million.
* Billy Mitchell (Hatteras) Airport repaving, $1.2 million.
* Coastal Carolina (New Bern) Airport runway repaving, $3 million.
* First Flight (Kill Devil Hills) Airport repaving, $1 million.
* Laurinburg Maxton Airport taxiway repaving, $2 million.
* Ocracoke Island Airport repaving, $1,2 million.
* Rockingham-Shiloh Airport runway repaving, $3.6 million.
* Statesville Airport taxiway parallel construction, $8 million.
* Tarboro-Edgecombe County Airport runway repaving, updating airfield lighting and repairing damage caused by Hurricane Matthew, $2 million.
Aviation contributes more than $31 billion in annual economic impact to the N.C. economy, including 123,400 airport-related jobs.
With the exception of the Albert J. Ellis Airport project, which will be funded 90 percent by the state and 10 percent locally, each of these safety projects are completely state-funded.