The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) recently announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will award $495 million in airport infrastructure grants, which is the first allotment of the total $3.18 billion in Airport Improvement Program funding for airports across the nation.

In Alabama, 19 airports will receive a total of $19.4 million in infrastructure grants, including Craig Field, which received $550,000 to be used to rehabilitate a runway.

“This is all part of planning ahead,” said Craig Field Airport and Industrial Authority Executive Director James Corrigan. “When you’ve got a facility like this, you’ve got to keep it operational. This will continue to make it more appealing to attract businesses to this area in the future.”

Corrigan said the funds will be used to repair a runway at Craig Field, which is 8,000-feet long and 150-feet wide.

“That’s what costs so much,” Corrigan said, noting that the last time the runway was resurfaced and repaired was in 2003.

The majority of the project will center around sealing cracks that have cropped up along the runway over the years from planes taking off and touching down, which are hazardous to planes looking to utilize the runway.

Corrigan said the work will extend the life of the runway by five years or more.

A contractor with extensive experience in airfield infrastructure work has already been contracted and Corrigan said that the runway will be painted once the job is finished.

Corrigan noted that putting the funds to work is a complicated dance between the airport, the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT), the FAA and the USDOT, as each entity has to sign off on proposed projects or ensure that the airfield is meeting certain specifications, but it’s all part of his five-year plan to keep the airport operating.

“A lot of work goes into making it happen,” Corrigan said. “But it’s going to extend the life of this runway and airfield.”