Commissioners approve FAA grant application for predesign work on airport runway rehabilitation

St. Mary’s County commissioners on June 3 authorized the Department of Public Works and Transportation to submit a Federal Aviation Administration grant application to fund environmental review and engineering predesign work related to a recommended full rehabilitation of the county airport runway.

Acting Director Donnie Mills and Deputy Director Gary Whipple told commissioners the airport’s existing runway pavement is about 30 years old and that a recently completed pavement management plan recommended full rehabilitation. "They recommend that we, do a full rehabilitation of the existing runway," Whipple said, noting previous crack sealing and patching have not addressed the runway’s overall condition.

The proposed FAA application covers professional environmental and engineering services; the county identified a local match of roughly 5 percent. During discussion staff said predesign and environmental work in the current application will allow the county to apply in a future federal fiscal year for construction funding and to finalize a phasing plan and cost estimate. Construction funding would likely come in a later federal fiscal year (staff said the earliest construction grant application would be federal fiscal year 2027). DPW staff said the expected construction work could require runway closure for phased paving and that the agency will plan the phasing to limit operational disruption.

Commissioners approved the grant application and authorized the commission president to sign any resulting grant agreements consistent with the application. The DPW will proceed to detailed design and environmental review after FAA approval of the predesign grant.