Manhattan Regional Airport Officials Confirm Timeline for Airport Closure: No Flights for 100 Days in Summer
Nov. 30—Manhattan Regional Airport officials confirmed Tuesday a timeline for a runway repair project: commercial air service out of Manhattan will be suspended for about three months in summer 2023.
Airport director Brandon Keazer said the airport's runways and airline terminals will be closed, with flights to be diverted to other regional hubs, from mid-May to the end of August for the third phase of the airport's runway construction project.
The Mercury first reported that the airport would close for the project in February and again in August.
Keazer said the full closure is happening to allow crews to rebuild the surface of both runways where they intersect. Commercial airlines operate from the main runway, but private and general aviation flights utilize the smaller runway, which crosses the main one. To complete the full rebuild of the main runway, both must be shut down.
The Manhattan City Commission chose Clarkson Construction of Kansas City, Mo., as the lead contractor with a low bid of $26.85 million. Keazer said Phase 1 of construction is underway and will not affect airfield operations. The second phase of work will trigger a runway closure for three days, March 28-31, for Clarkson Construction to outline the next area for repairs. Following that brief closure, Keazer said crews will begin breaking down the asphalt where both runways meet.
Therefore, commercial flights into MHK Regional will be suspended for about 100 days to allow for runway repairs. General aviation flights will be suspended for about 60 days. Keazer said he anticipates the return of commercial flights on Sept. 1.
"It will be difficult, as this is the first time we're actually closing everything down," Keazer said, "but once it's done it's something we won't have to worry about for a long time."
Keazer said a customer cannot book a flight from Manhattan during the airport's scheduled closings because of coordination with American Airlines, the airport's commercial flight provider, about the construction timeline.
Travelers who have American Airlines' flights already booked for that time period will be moved to a different airport, likely Kansas City or Wichita. Fort Riley will use the Salina Airport or Topeka Regional while Manhattan Regional is closed.
The Salina Airport offers United Airlines commercial flights to Denver and Chicago through its website, salinaairport.com. There are no commercial flights available out of Topeka.
In July, the FAA announced it would give the airport a $36.1 million grant, which the city commission officially accepted. A lower-than-expected construction bid meant both the federal organization and the city government will pay less for the project which will "rubblize" the runway's concrete.
Rubblization does not involve complete demolition of the runway, but it does, in essence, break up and smooth out the runway surface and allow crews to apply new layers of asphalt and concrete along the 150-foot-wide runway. The plan is to lay a 5-inch asphalt base after the pavement is rubblized, then crews will apply a 10.5-inch concrete surface. Other outside sections will get a 12-inch surface with no base.
The plan also calls for the reconstruction of the secondary runway, as well as adjacent intersections and five taxiways. One taxiway will be removed because of a change in FAA design standards, and more lights and navigational aids will be placed along the runway.
The total cost for the project is $34.8 million, including planning and design. The FAA paid for $28.5 million of the project, a U.S. Department of Defense program's share is $3.196 million, and the city is paying $3.2 million, which will be paid through general obligation bonds.
The last time the runways were repaved was in 1979; Keazer said both runways have exceeded their 20-year useful lives. The runway construction master plan was started in July 2018 and officially completed in fall 2020.
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