Renton airport official details $18 million taxiway grant, emergency seaplane dredging and other upgrades

Manny Croats, introduced to the committee of the whole as the airport’s presenter, told council members the city has secured an FAA grant of more than $18,000,000 to reconstruct Taxiway Alpha and is moving forward with emergency dredging at the seaplane base after heavy December flooding.

Croats said the taxiway project is intended to address pavement that has endured more than 20 years of wear and will improve tenant access and safety for airport users. "The Taxiway Alpha is the main road for the tenants and the public to use the airport," he said, adding the FAA award would enable a comprehensive reconstruction.

He said the airport also has invested about $2,000,000 in new pavement that added transient and tie‑down parking where the field previously had effectively one public stall; the project included infrastructure planning for future electric‑aircraft charging. "We started around March so that's where you see the total operation about 88,000," Croats said of a new ADS‑B tracking feed, which records flights when an aircraft's transponder is…