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McAllen, Texas, Airport to Get Federal Funding

Posted on: Friday, 2 December 2005, 18:00 CST

By Matt Whittaker, The Monitor, McAllen, Texas

Dec. 2--McALLEN -- The Rio Grande Valley will receive at least $2.3 million in federal appropriations for economic development and hunger prevention from an $8.59 billion transit bill Congress passed before Thanksgiving and President Bush signed Wednesday.

More than $2 million for transportation infrastructure improvements will go to McAllen and will be used to improve McAllen-Miller International Airport's runway and expand the meager parking at the city's international bus station, city, county and congressional officials announced Thursday. The Rio Grande Valley Food Bank will get $250,000 for its new headquarters in Pharr.

More than $1.6 million will go for a new instrument landing system and runway lighting at the airport, which will allow planes to land in inclement weather. Half a million dollars will go toward building a parking lot at McAllen's Central Station.

The funds were earmarked in the fiscal year 2006 House appropriations bill for the departments of Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the judiciary and independent agencies.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said at an airport news conference Thursday that the funds are aimed at luring more business to Upper Valley cities by meeting infrastructure needs.

The aviation funds will flow to the airport through the Federal Aviation Administration.

The navigational equipment is essential to the airport's increasing commercial traffic and number of carriers and is needed to correct the airport's most critical safety issue, Doggett said. If the current instrument landing system, one of the oldest in the FAA system, were to break, the airport would be unable to support air traffic in inclement weather.

"Our need has greatly increased," the airport's director of aviation, Derald Lary, told the group at the airport that included Mayor Richard Cortez, County Commissioner Hector "Tito" Palacios, City Commissioners Aida Ramirez and John Ingram, and the leaders of the city's Economic Development Corp. and Chamber of Commerce.

McAllen's air carrier runway -- it also has a general aviation strip -- can be approached from the east or west. Planes coming from one direction can use the runway's aging instrument landing system, but there is no such system to guide those coming from the other direction.

On Tuesday morning, when a plane came in to land, the weather was windy and cloudy with low visibility. If the wind had been from a different direction, planes couldn't have landed and would have been diverted to another airport, Lary said.

That means missed business meetings and inconvenienced travelers, he said. But once the upgrade is completed, the airport will have precision landing instruments for planes approaching from either direction.

"This system here is going to be a great improvement on our safety and just the fact that we're going to get you where you need to be on time," Lary said.

Doggett, a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said it is also a safety issue for the neighborhoods near the airport.

It is unclear exactly when construction on the runway could start because the FAA has to design and plan the project, Lary said. But the project, including design aspects, will likely begin sometime in 2006. Doggett's office said construction won't begin for at least six months.

The improvements are not part of a runway extension program already being considered at the airport, but Lary said the instrument landing system can be relocated to accommodate a longer runway.

Other federal funds will go to McAllen's Central Station.

The new parking facility -- a lot or garage -- could add about 200 spaces to the current 60 spaces at the international bus terminal, said Elizabeth Suarez, McAllen's transit director. But the project will likely cost more than $500,000.

That money will be funneled from the congressional earmarks through the Federal Transit Administration to the bus station. But the city expects additional funds, to be matched 20 percent by the city, to be available directly from the FTA for the project that, two years ago, was estimated to be in the $1.5 million range.

The city will need to acquire land for the new facility to be located at the northeast corner of Business 83 and 15th Street, north of the terminal.

The project is in preliminary stages, and Suarez said it is too early to tell when construction could begin. The $500,000 announced Thursday will be used for planning the project that will likely be completed 18 to 24 months from its inception.

"This is really what we needed to get started," Suarez said.

Not to be left out, the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley will use the $250,000 toward its purchase of the former Valley Fruit & Vegetable Co. packing facility in downtown Pharr. The funds are intended to help the food bank pay for, renovate and equip the 724 N. Cage Blvd. facility, which will be its new headquarters.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Monitor, McAllen, Texas

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Source: The Monitor (McAllen, Texas)

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