PULLMAN, Wash. — The ongoing government shutdown could lead to delays and potentially extra costs associated with a major construction project at Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, officials fear.
The airport is in the midst of realigning its runway to comply with Federal Aviation Administration standards. The project, budgeted at $142.5 million, has been close to a decade in the making with physical construction on the new runway taking place over the last few years. While construction is on schedule for completion next fall, federal approval tied to landing procedures conducted by the FAA could be delayed due to the shutdown.
"It takes away our elasticity to have an error,” said airport executive director Tony Bean of the project’s schedule. The FAA is responsible, Bean said, for installing and testing an instrument landing system related to the new runway. The equipment, along with FAA-developed approach maps and procedures, are essential during low-visibility landings.
The government shutdown, now the longest ever, is tied to a congressional impasse related to a $5.7 billion spending request related to President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. The section of the FAA responsible for building and testing flight procedures isn’t operational during the shutdown, Bean said.
"The only people that can build the flight procedures, i.e. the map in the sky, is the FAA,” he said.
Bean fears that the longer the shutdown continues, a backlog of work could be created for FAA inspectors, possibly pushing back planned testing dates. An FAA flight check is scheduled at Pullman-Moscow Regional for early July. Bean said maintaining that timetable would be essential for the runway’s planned opening next fall. "Any little thing can become very, very large when everything has to work together,” he said. “It's all dependent on each piece."
Bean noted that delays could also potentially result in the airport’s construction contract being changed, possibly meaning higher costs.
For now, the airport is scheduled to close its runway from September 8th to October 10th as part of the runway realignment. That closure, Bean said, represents lost revenue in terms of flights that can’t land or leave the airport. If the project’s schedule is impacted, that plan could change. "That would necessitate a second closure, which we don't want to do. It just costs additional money."
The realignment project comes amid a growing importance for the airport and its relationship to the Palouse. In 2011, Pullman-Moscow Regional saw 32,000 enplanements. In 2018, the number had doubled to 66,000, Bean said.
"The universities, the connectivity we have for our region, there's a lot of air travel. The Palouse is kind of a unique place,” Bean said, noting that the Palouse isn’t serviced by a major interstate highway or rail line.
“We sincerely hope the shutdown and employee furlough ends very soon,” wrote Bean in a news release. “We will stay committed to mitigate and communicate the risks and options in order to have as little of an impact as possible within local controls.”