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FAA-funded West apron design to start July 2025; construction slated for 2026, taxi lanes later
Summary
AvCon reported that the West Apron Rehabilitation design will begin in July 2025 with FAA construction funding expected in fiscal 2026; taxi-lane design and construction are scheduled for later years. FAA grant formulas and potential discretionary funding were discussed.
John Collins, an AvCon consultant, told the Santa Rosa County Peter Prince Airport Advisory Committee that the airport’s West Apron Rehabilitation design is scheduled to begin in July 2025 and that the FAA anticipates funding construction in fiscal 2026. Collins said the as‑built survey for the recently completed Taxiway Bravo project has just been completed and the taxiway has been open for months.
“The FAA is going to issue the grant in July of this year to do all the design work for it,” Collins said, describing the FAA’s typical one-year design, one‑to‑two‑year construction cadence. He added that the design phase will include an apron utilization plan to evaluate aircraft parking, taxi lanes and opportunities to add parking spaces or reconfigure tie‑downs.
Collins said the FAA typically covers 90 percent of costs through Airport Improvement Program (AIP) entitlements and that a separate Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) pot can cover 95 percent for eligible projects. He said the county has engaged the Florida Department of Transportation to cover the remaining local match, so “the county would end up paying $0 for the projects” in many cases, while noting that large construction bids sometimes require additional discretionary FAA funding.
The committee heard that after the apron project is complete, attention will shift to taxi lanes between hangars on the West Side. Collins said design for those taxi lanes is programmed for fiscal 2027 with construction in fiscal 2028 under current planning documents.
Committee members asked whether the apron work would be resurfacing or full reconstruction and Collins replied the final scope will depend on pavement core results: “We will do pavement cores during the evaluation to see how thick the pavement is… The minimum asphalt thickness for any FAA‑funded pavement is now four inches.”
The conversation also covered phasing during construction and routing aircraft around work areas, and the committee was told obstruction‑removal bids for tree removal on the north and south ends of the airport will be advertised soon with FDOT funding already committed.
The committee requested that staff coordinate early with FDOT and the county on related projects, such as upcoming intersection work at Airport Road and Highway 90, to identify opportunities to coordinate right‑of‑way and utilities work.
