Graham Municipal Airport Projects Making Local Impact

The Graham Municipal Airport TxDOT airfield rehabilitation project is coming to a completion as the airport looks back on improvements made in the last year and what is to come for the future of the facility.

The airport is a public-use facility serving the community by providing aviation facilities and services. Graham Municipal Airport sits on 172 acres and has two intersecting runways which are runway 03/21, a 5,000-foot runway that is 75-feet wide, and runway 18/36, a 3,300-foot runway that is 50-feet wide.

Airport TxDOT rehabilitation project

In December 2020, the Texas Transportation Commission approved the award of approximately $1.5 million to Graham Municipal Airport for pavement improvements for the runways. When the airport completed a survey they discovered erosion from water underneath one of the runways. The project involved taking the runaway down to the subgrade and then later asphalting. The longer runway also received cracking repairs, sealing and coating. The taxiways also were resealed within the scope of the project.

The project had five phases which were runway 18/36 in the first phase, runway 03/21 in the second phase, the intersection of the two runway in phase three, the taxiways in the fourth phase and the fifth phase was the addition of another Precision Approach Path Indicators (PAPI).

“We had our final inspection with TxDOT last Friday (Sept. 30), (and) everything looks good. That wound up being a $1.7 million project, a little bit bigger than anticipated, because of the extensive water damage they found under runway 18/36, which is our crosswind runway. Because of TxDOT’s programming and because of some COVID money that came through everything, (...) the project was 100% paid for outside of the city budget. (...) That’s coming from the FAA and from TxDOT,” Graham Municipal Airport Manager Jon Delamarter said. “As part of that project, we installed a new LED rotating beacon because ours had failed. (...) A 1930s model that we had, had failed. Then we also installed (...) two new LED PAPIs, (...) which are our approach lights at both ends of the long runway, 03/21. We’re still waiting for the FAA to come out and do their flight test to commission those lights and get them turned on.”