Main runway at Jamestown Regional Airport to close May 7-June 16

Mar. 28—JAMESTOWN — Jamestown Regional Airport announced the main runway will be closed for about six weeks and there will be no commercial flights during that time.

The main runway will close from May 7-June 16 but Jamestown Regional Airport will remain open, said Katie Hemmer, airport director. She said the crosswind runway will remain open for general aviation.

She said SkyWest Airlines/United Express will contact any individuals who have purchased boarding tickets.

"United is going to be working through the customer service side of it but they will be offering the option to book out of another airport so you could fly a United flight out of Fargo or Bismarck, for example, for the closest ones to us," she said.

She said those customers could get a refund and can book a flight out of Jamestown on a different date if their travel time is flexible or could book with a different airline at a different airport once they get their refund.

She said the runway will remain open until May 7 since the University of Jamestown's graduation is set for May 4.

"We are not closing on May 6 because we want the ability for those that came for graduation to still be able to travel on Monday," Hemmer said. "There may be some that were looking to travel later in the week that would still have to reschedule for that purpose."

She also said the main runway will be open before the Fourth of July holiday so individuals can fly in and out of Jamestown.

"We are trying to capture as many passengers as we can even with the closure," she said.

Jamestown Regional Airport currently offers direct flights to and from Denver on United Airlines, which is operated by SkyWest Airlines.

Hemmer said the runway rehabilitation project is primarily a mill and overlay project. She said the project also includes crack and joint repair in the concrete.

"A good portion of the construction timeframe is dedicated to that crack repair," she said.

The last rehabilitation project was done in 2005, she said.

"We should not have to do another pavement rehabilitation now for 20 or more years," she said.

The cost is of the runway rehabilitation project is more than $4 million. The local share of the project is 5% with 90% being covered by a Federal Aviation Administration grant and 5% through a North Dakota Aeronautics Commission grant.

Hemmer said the timing of the runway closure is based on the anticipated weather for the project.

"For example, they have to paint at the end of this project so if you were to do this project in the late summer and into the fall, you could really bump into weather problems, temperature-wise for the painting that has to happen after the paving that happens," she said. "Doing this early enough in the construction season gives us the best chance to stay on schedule and to get this project done in the shortest amount of time possible."

The airport's airfield electrical project and a panel and surface repair project on different concrete surfaces will also happen at the same time as the runway rehabilitation project.

"Those are all separate contracts, but they are all working with each other for the closure," she said. "For example, the concrete work that's happening on the ramp where the commercial aircraft parks, they are going to do all that work during the time that the runway is closed."

The airfield electrical project includes replacing every light and sign on the airfield and upgrading and changing them to LED fixtures. The project also includes getting all new electrical wires and regulators.

Most of the work for a panel and surface repair will happen on an older section of the ramp.

Hemmer said the closure of the main runway and no commercial flights will likely drop the number of passenger boardings below 10,000 for the 2024 year at Jamestown Regional Airport.

If the airport gets 10,000 paid passenger boardings in a year, it qualifies for $1 million in entitlement funds from the federal Airport Improvement Program.

Hemmer said the airport has been working with the FAA district office — the entity that administers the Jamestown airport's grant. If the Jamestown airport stays above 8,000 passenger boardings, it would qualify for $600,000 in entitlement funds from the federal Airport Improvement Program, she said. She also said the airport can also apply for a waiver.

"We won't know if we will receive that but they will support us through that waiver process for the construction," she said.

She said the average number of passenger boardings could be looked at for the days and weeks that were missed while the main runway is closed to help finalize the number of passenger boardings to potentially qualify for more entitlement funds

Dropping below 10,000 passenger boardings won't make the Jamestown airport ineligible for discretionary grants.

"The runway rehab alone is $4 million and then we also have the concrete so we receive discretionary funding for our projects this year because they well exceeded our $1 million of entitlement so we would still be eligible for those," she said. "So we don't estimate that we will have an impact on our capital improvement plan for the future."