The extension of Runway 21 at Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport followed the successful completion of the Master Plan Update and Environmental Assessment which identified and evaluated a runway extension of 800 feet to serve the growing regional jet airline service. Delta provided program management, design, bidding, and construction phase services to complete the runway and associated parallel taxiway extensions.
Many factors required that the project be completed in several phases to ultimately achieve 6,800 feet. Challenges accomplished during the multi-year, multi-project program included: locating material for the extensive fill that was necessary, extensive coordination with the airlines and FAA for maintaining the Airport’s existing approach minimums during the entire project, dealing with several environmentally sensitive issues which included water quality and wetland mitigation, and phasing the project into usable segments of work within annual budget limitations. The final phase of the runway extension program was substantially complete in 2014.