Construction on the Wiscasset Municipal Airport in Maine to upgrade the airport’s lighting system and repave the airport’s only runway is set to begin in the coming weeks. The project, expecting to take six weeks to complete, will cost around US$3.3 million according to the Federal Aviation Administration who funded both the projects through grants. The airport is located around four miles south of downtown Wiscasset and is owned by the Wiscasset town. It caters to mostly small, private planes used by business and recreational flyers but it can also accommodate medical evacuation flights.
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The original runway at the Wiscasset airport was built in 1961, shortly after the town purchased the land in 1957, and was only 2,800 feet long at the time. It was later lengthened to 3,400 feet nearly ten years later, according to town records. Wiscasset Municipal Airport Manager Rick Tetrev said that he believes this will be the first time the runway has been repaved from end to end, with the most recent work on the runway being done nearly 6 years ago. The chair of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced the US$3 million grant to redo the runway, as part of a larger federal award from the American Department of Transportation’s Airport Improvement Program, last year.
Wiscasset is one of five airports in the state to receive the funding. The Portland International Jetport received the next largest award of US$2.2 million to rehabilitate the taxiway, the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport received $190,406 to rehabilitate the airport apron, the Augusta State Airport was given US$300,000 to update the airport’s master plan, and the Bethel Regional Airport received US$75,000 to remove obstructions from the property. The other US$216,666 will finance the installation LED lights along the runway to guide pilots.
