RANGELEY — Residents voted 265-88 on Tuesday to move forward on the final phase of an engineering proposal to add 1,100 feet to the town airport’s runway.
The current runway – at 3,201 feet – is too short for the LifeFlight of Maine’s airplane to land when needed to airlift a patient to a hospital.
Of the proposed 1,100-foot extension, 690 feet would be added at the north end of the airport and 410 feet would be added at the south end.
Loon Lake Road would be shifted to go around the end of the runway on town property, according to Guy Rouelle, senior aviation project manager at DuBois & King. A permanent steel snow fence would also be installed to prevent snow from drifting to other properties.
The cost of the runway extension project is estimated at $10 million. Of that amount, 90 percent would be paid by the Federal Aviation Administration, 5 percent by the Maine Department of Transportation and 5 percent, or $500,000, by the town.
Other resources have been developed to help with the town’s share of the cost.
DuBois & King’s Inc. conceptual rendering of the approved extension to Rangeley’s municipal airport. It will be extended by a total of 1,100 feet, split between the north and south ends. The greenish-blue line on the far right indicates the change to Loon Lake Road. (DuBois & King)
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