WESTFIELD – A number of significant projects are improving Barnes Regional Airport, making it safer and more desirable for further development in both aviation and industry.
A major airport improvement project, at a cost of $16.7 million, was the rehabilitation of the main runway, 2-20, which was completed in the late fall. A dedication ceremony with airport, city and state officials was held on Nov. 25.
“To be able to pull off a new runway in this economy is amazing,” Mayor Daniel M.Knapik said. “All of the pieces of the airport puzzle are coming together, and better days are ahead.”
Airport Commission Chairman Joe Mitchell said the runway rehabilitation project was a truly collaborative undertaking involving city, state and federal agencies.
“It was made up of a combination of funding from the City of Westfield, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the National Guard Bureau, and the Federal Aviation Administration,” said Mitchell, before adding that the final price tag was four million less than the $20 million estimate of the project.
“This project will maintain the viability of this airport, the economy it supports, and the city, for the next 50 years,” Mitchell said. “I’ll be dead and gone when they see the first cracks in this runway.”
“About 6,700 feet of the runway is concrete,” Mitchell said. “The rest is asphalt.”
The concrete is located at both the north and south ends of the runway where the F-15 fighter jets assigned to the Massachusetts National Guard 104th Fighter Wing, which typically take off with afterburners, rotate upward. The rotation and the afterburner blast had shredded the old asphalt runway, creating foreign object debris (FOB) that could cause damage to the multimillion fighters and corporate jets.
The added length of the runway is necessary, Mitchell said, because while several thousand feet are needed for a jet to take off, in the event of a malfunction, additional space is needed to ensure it can safely return to the ground.
“If you lose an engine, you need about 5,000 feet to stop,” said Mitchell, who formerly served as a pilot in the United States Air Force.
There were several other infrastructure improvements at Barnes including reconstruction of the access road to businesses along the east side of the airport, of which Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation of Savannah, Ga., is the largest. Gulfstream recently completed a $23 million expansion project that more than doubled their maintenance capacity. The new 125,000-square foot hanger facility has the capability of housing larger aircraft undergoing maintenance at the Barnes Regional Airport-based facility.
The city was awarded a $2 million state economic development grant to reconstruct, and realign, Airport Industrial Road through the Massworks Infrastructure Program. The former access road between North Road and Elise Street was a hodgepodge of street fragments, including two segments of Apremont Way, and a segment of Old Stage Way.
City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley said the current road does not conform to the city’s zoning requirements for an industrial park road.
Daley, who also serves as the executive director of the Westfield Redevelopment Authority which is overseeing the development of an 80-acre industrial park along Airport Industrial Road. The Airport Industrial Road bisects that 80 acres, with roughly 40 acres to the east and to the west of the reconstructed roadway. Daley said that half of the west parcel, 20 acres, will have direct access to the airport and is being reserved for aviation related business.
The City Council recently approved two long-term leases, one for a new restaurant in the Barnes administrative and terminal building, the other, a 50-year lease for five dilapidated hangers which will be rehabilitated by Whip City Aviation LLC which also plans to construct additional general aviation and/or corporate jet hangers.
Daley said at the Dec. 19 council session that the repairs and maintenance made by Whip City Aviation to the T hangars is substantial cost avoidance for the city which has owned, but not maintained, the deteriorating facilities. Daley said the estimated hangar repair cost, at a minimum, is $313,000.
“If we did (the repair) ourselves, the cost would be much higher because the city would have to use prevailing wages for that work,” Daley said. “They are taking assets off our hands that we can’t maintain.
“And there will be an investment of $800,000 over the next 10 years to build two new hangars,” Daley said. “Over $1.1 million will be invested to make Barnes a better airport.”
