{"id":24057,"date":"2022-11-21T14:45:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T14:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=24057"},"modified":"2022-11-21T14:48:45","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T14:48:45","slug":"watonga-regional-airport-opens-new-runway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/oklahoma\/watonga-regional-airport-opens-new-runway\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Watonga Regional Airport Opens New Runway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.watongaok.gov\/airport\">Watonga Regional Airport<\/a> hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, November 15, in honor of the airport\u2019s new 4,000-foot runway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This project consisted of reconstructing of the existing\n4,000 ft by 60 ft runway in its current location to meet Federal Aviation\nAdministration (FAA) standards.&nbsp; Also\nincluded in the project was the installation of new LED runway edge lights and\nan obstruction survey of the area to develop new instrument approach procedures\nthat will ensure the airport has 24\/7 access in all weather conditions.&nbsp; The total project cost was just under $2.8M\nand was funded by grants entirely from the FAA due to ARPA funds provided by\nCongress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation Tim Gatz has been active\nin the support of the Aeronautics Commission\u2019s aggressive efforts to improve\nthe quality of infrastructure throughout the 108 public-use airports located\nwithin the Oklahoma Airport System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis airport has a vibrant community of based aircraft including\na based agricultural spraying operation along with a recently renewed fuel\nfarm. With this completed runway project, the city is now set for growth\nopportunities, and with aviation and aerospace as the state\u2019s second largest\neconomic engine, Watonga is positioned to help further the state\u2019s aero\ncommerce and tourism efforts,\u201d said Sec. Gatz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the ribbon cutting attendees heard from local\nand state dignitaries including Mayor Bill Seitter, Representative Mike\nDobrinski, and State Director of Aeronautics Grayson Ardies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis airport\u2019s runway pavement was exhibiting significant\ndistresses as it had been over 25 years since it\u2019s last major project,\u201d said\nDirector Ardies. \u201cAs the state\u2019s agency for aviation and aerospace we were well\npositioned to program these federal funds for the rehabilitation of a major\nrunway asset in western Oklahoma.\u201d&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watonga Regional Airport has a $1.2 million annual economic impact,\nand the airport is home to several aviation agriculture businesses along with\nbeing used by numerous oil and gas operations as well as other local entities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much of the state\u2019s population of almost four million is\nfocused in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metropolitan areas with the remainder\nresiding in smaller communities scattered across the state. Without the ability\nto support its services by air, Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) and other first\nresponders would not be able to provide effective law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many smaller hospitals are not able to have specialty\ndoctors on staff. Oklahoma Heart Hospital is affiliated with many towns\nthroughout Oklahoma. Doctors from this hospital and many others routinely fly\nthroughout the state to see their patients, including in the Watonga area. This\nairport allows doctors to fly to patients who would not have otherwise had the\nability to receive their care locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senator Darcy Jech said, \u201cOklahoma Aeronautics and the FAA\ncontinue to show their support of the Oklahoma Airport System by investing in\naviation infrastructure. This airport is something the citizens of Watonga can\nbe proud of for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Watonga Regional Airport hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, November 15, in honor of the airport\u2019s new 4,000-foot runway. This project consisted of reconstructing of the existing 4,000 ft by 60 ft runway in its current location to meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards.&nbsp; Also included in the project was the installation of new [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oklahoma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Watoga-runway-opening.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24061,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24057\/revisions\/24061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}