The Jefferson City Council approved plans to purchase 52-acres to extend the runway at the Jefferson Municipal Airport at Tuesday’s meeting.

DGR Engineering from Ankeny is the lead organization on the runway extension project.  The City wants to see runway 14/32 extended from 3,200-feet to 4,000-feet so it can handle twin-engine and small corporate airplanes.  Most airplanes that size require a 4,000-foot runway for insurance purposes.

Dustin Leo of DGR Engineering says the Federal Aviation Administration requires three key components for a runway extension.  The first is the protection zone.  The runway must have ground beyond it so that airplanes can either abort a takeoff or have extra room for an emergency landing.  The next part is the building restriction line which requires having enough land to extend the runway and the final component is the approach road.  The FAA requires any approach road to be relocated if it interferes with a runway.

City Administrator Mike Palmer says 47 of the 52-acres is owned by David Hall and Betty Reinhart owns 2.6-acres.  Palmer adds that 2.6-acres is the gravel road that will need to be relocated before the runway extension can happen.

Airport Commissioner Jim Forbes describes the details of relocating the road.

“It basically goes East and West on the south side of the airport.  And so it’ll just be moved a little bit further to the South to make sure that it meets the runway protection zone regulations by the FAA.”

Since the Council gave approval to move ahead with the plans, Leo notes that DGR will take the 52-acres to an appraiser for a fair market value estimate to pay to the landowners.  It will then go into a review appraiser committee before final payment is made.

The FAA will pay for 90 percent of the project and the City will match ten percent.  Forbes says the airport has enough funds to pay for the City’s part due to airport land that is available for cash-rent and other fees.

The runway may not be completed until 2017.