Airport receives $1.02 million grant

Hot Springs Memorial Field, 525 Airport Road, is shown in February 2020. - File photo by The Sentinel-Record
Hot Springs Memorial Field, 525 Airport Road, is shown in February 2020. - File photo by The Sentinel-Record

Hot Springs Memorial Field will receive a $1.02 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for work on an airport lighting vault and for runway pavement sealing.

The grant is part of a $10.7 million airport safety and infrastructure grant that has been awarded to 13 airports in Arkansas.

The airport light vault is a system that "regulates the power that goes out to the runway lights, and so the runway lights, taxiway lights, all go through this -- we call it an electrical vault -- and that electrical vault keeps a constant current regulator there that keeps the lights burning steady," Airport Director Glen Barentine said.

"The system we have now is a very antiquated, older system that has needed a replacement for years, and we're excited to finally get these replacement parts in, or get this massive upgrade to the electrical system for the airport," he said.

"The other part is a runway rehabilitation project that will extend the life of the asphalt years longer instead of having to replace it sooner. So it's kind of like a preventive maintenance; we'll put a seal on it, we'll paint the markings just to extend the life of the runway asphalt itself."

Barentine said Memorial Field was chosen as a recipient of the grant because of its need for the repairs and improvements.

The interior of Hot Springs Memorial Field, as seen on Thursday. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record
The interior of Hot Springs Memorial Field, as seen on Thursday. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record

"The electrical vault was probably a 1960s, 1970s construction that we've maintained for the last 60 years, and because of that it's a safety need and that system needed to be upgraded," he said. "The other part is the rejuvenation helps extend the life of that asphalt ... when maintaining the asphalt we have it in a safe and usable condition instead of letting it get deteriorated to the point where we have to replace it."

Overall, Barentine said, the grant will improve "operational safety" of the airport.

"For the lights, spare parts will be easier to find in case we have an outage; then the seal part makes it where the asphalt retains its strength, and then the markings, of course, will be for safety," he said.

The project will take "a long time," Barentine said, but the runway will only be shut down for one week for painting, seal coats and lighting installation.

"The project, there's going to be a bunch going into it," he said. "We have to preset the building, set the wires and do all the pre-work before we plug it into the runway lights, and then when we're doing the safety area, we'll move the threshold of the runway so we can continue to use it, but at one point we'll have to shut the runway down for like a week so we can do all work associated with it and tie it all in."

Barentine said everything for the project's completion is "open to bid," and they will "most likely" use local subcontractors.

"We usually use up right up to the dollar (of grants)," he said. "This is the amount of money they've given us, and then we'll go out for bids to get the exact amount, and then the grant will be corrected to the exact amount. But it's in that neighborhood of $1.02 (million)."

Other recipients of the grants include Sharp County Regional Airport, Bentonville Municipal Field, Delta Regional Airport in Colt, Jack Stell Field in Crossett, Billy Free Municipal Airport in Dumas, Marion County Regional Airport in Flippin, Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, McGehee Municipal Airport, Morrilton Municipal Airport, Ozark-Franklin County Airport, Pocahontas Municipal Airport and Smith Field in Siloam Springs.

Barentine said the grant was a surprise to him because grants are typically awarded in September, making this a "unique" occurrence.

"We're excited to finally get this new electrical vault; it's something we've been wanting since I took over in 2016, it's something I've been working hard on, so I'm very happy and it makes it easy for our maintenance people to maintain the system," Barentine said.

Local on 02/23/2020

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