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But they need a bigger airport for all the reporters who fly up there to dig up dirt on Govenor Palin.

That will just allow the village to take full advantage of the Bypass mail system, allowing for an increased flow of soda's and chips. It's the best system going for the customer, pay .19 cents a pound to ship and the Post Office pays the air carriers 1.75 a pound to move it!

Palin is for the ridiculous airport. Perhaps you should give her a ring.

I'm a moron. hee hee ha!

in the small Bush village
See - it's all Bush's fault.

They should just close the airport and let the Grizzly Adams wannabees inbreed themselves to extinction.

Or for that cash they could relocate them all to Chicago and build a skating rink for them to live in if it gets too hot.

The issue here is not that they are getting an airport, but why it costs $21 million.

From the article, "At 3,300 feet long and 75 feet wide, the new airport in Takotna will be almost twice the size of the old one...."

"The current airport in Takotna is 1,700 feet long and 45 feet wide."

"The new airport will be located at a new site because the old one is built into the side of a hill......The new facility also will be lighted. The current airstrip does not have lights."

The airport at Takotna is described as “very substandard.”

“The existing airport is the state’s airport, and it needed to be upgraded,.....We did a planning analysis and determined the best thing to do was relocate it to an area that was better able to meet the dimensional requirements of the FAA.”

"The FAA will provide 95 percent of the funding for the airport with the state supplying the remaining 5 percent..."

"The Takotna airport is one of 256 rural airports in Alaska managed by DOT. The agency spends an average of about $140 million per year on rural airport projects, most of which is funded under the federal airport improvement program."

“Most of the major projects in small villages are cases where the state may have built an airport a long time ago without federal funding and it was not built to modern standards, so we’re going back in to upgrade them.”

"The airport is essentially the only way in and out of Takotna during summer months, though riverboats can sometimes be used to reach nearby McGrath, about 20 miles away on the Kuskokwim River, depending on water levels in the Takotna River."

“They do have river access in the summertime, but the river gets shallow so even that is questionable at times."

"The $21 million grant for the airport was part of more than $70 million worth of grants and contracts awarded to communities throughout Alaska by the U.S. Department of Transportation last week, according to a press release from the Alaska congressional delegation."

Aviation is a critical part of the transportation system in Alaska, and a 3,300 foot long, 75 foot wide runway is not very extravagant at all. The small population doesn't always tell the whole story; they are likely living there for a reason other than the isolation, and often the local airport is the economic hub up there.

What's at issue here is why it takes $21 million to do this. This is another example of "big government" in action - the job could probably be done for a tenth of that, and more expediently, too.

What's at issue here is why it takes $21 million to do this. This is another example of "big government" in action - the job could probably be done for a tenth of that, and more expediently, too.

Big gov is just funding the projects the state will actually do the construction. 21 mil is a drop in the bucket when you consider the amount the gov spends on highway projects around the country, Ak's primary means of transportation throughout the state is by air.
"The current airport in Takotna is 1,700 feet long and 45 feet wide" is described as “very substandard” which I would dissagree with, substandard is a 300ft strech of sandbar in a river.

Check a map. Takotna is dead in the middle of the state. No roads in, or out. Just the river, and mountains. Probably 1500 miles up the river. Now just imagine the cost of flying in 247,500 YARDS of concrete, at about 250#/yard, that's about 31,000 TONS. 21 million is a very low number.

The only concrete runways west of Fairbanks are in Barrow, Kotzebue, Nome, and Deadhorse to the north, the rest of them are gravel. Most of them are built suitable enough to accommodate C130's/DC6's at one time Alaska airlines had a 737-200 set up for use on gravel.

RE: Posted by: Bill at June 25, 2009 6:38 PM

Bill says, "The current airport in Takotna is 1,700 feet long and 45 feet wide" is described as “very substandard” which I would dissagree with, substandard is a 300ft strech of sandbar in a river."

A 300 foot sandbar might be possible in a hopped-up Tundra-tired Super Cub, but I'll take the 3,300 feet of graded gravel.

1,700 feet of pavement is barely enough to wrestle the ubiquitous Cessna Caravan in and out of, and going in/out over the FAA Standard "50-foot obstacle" would be nearly impossible, and worse with the gravel.

They're not trying to build a boondoggle like KJST John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport - just 3,300 feet of graded gravel with some lights and maybe a VASI, plus a hangar or two. That should not cost $21,000,000.00 to build.

Thinking really outside the box, the government could task an Air Force Reserve / Air National Guard Red Horse unit to build it for practice. You'd get it quicker and a whole lot cheaper.