Runway improvements underway at Sedalia Regional Airport

SEDALIA, Mo. -- Officials at the Sedalia Regional Airport are hoping improvements to the main runway will make the central Missouri airport more attractive to heavier jets and business jets.

Construction on the airport's main runway began in early July, five years after the airport received $450,000 to design the reconstruction. The funds were delayed by government slowdowns and other factors, The Sedalia Democrat reported.

The original runway was built in the early 1970s and had started to crack, with chunks coming out when airplanes used it, airport Director John Evans said.

"It is restricting us because the heavier jets can't come in here," he said, adding the airport averages 32 takeoffs and landings a day.

The renovation, at an estimated cost of $3.2 million, is being paid for mostly with Federal Aviation Administration and Missouri Department of Transportation funds. It is scheduled to be completed in three to five months. Part of the project includes adding lighting to a second runway and on a street leading to the airport.

Despite the construction, Evans said July has been the best month in the airport in the last 2 1/2 months.

"In the last five years business has almost tripled. I don't know how, we've just been lucky," Evans said. "We keep our fuel prices as low as possible. Since we're in the Midwest, some of the corporate jets can't make it coast to coast without stopping for fuel so we get a lot of fuel stops."

Future possible projects at the airport include expanding the main airport office, widening and repaving the second runway and building more hangars.

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Information from: The Sedalia Democrat, http://www.sedaliademocrat.com