{"id":4951,"date":"2019-11-21T10:07:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T15:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=4951"},"modified":"2019-11-21T10:07:38","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T15:07:38","slug":"lakeland-linder-international-airport-receives-8-5m-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/11\/21\/lakeland-linder-international-airport-receives-8-5m-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Linder International Airport receives $8.5M grant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded the Lakeland Linder International Airport with a special supplementary Airport Improvement Program (AIP) discretionary grant totaling $8,500,000. In September, the DOT had awarded Lakeland Linder a similar AIP grant for $10,150,000. The two grants will be used to strengthen runway 9-27, the airport\u2019s primary runway, and reconstruct runway lighting. Rep. Spano worked with the airport and the DOT to secure this funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rep. Spano<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis funding is essential to the growth and expansion of Lakeland Linder, and the timing is critical for their construction timelines. DOT grants will go towards updating the runway infrastructure, which is needed to attract new businesses and jobs. The airport is also working to attract and accommodate large companies, and now is the time to start building for the future. As a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Subcommittee on Aviation, I was glad to fight for the release of these funds this month, and I will continue to help Lakeland Linder and the surrounding community thrive,\u201d said Rep. Spano.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Airport Director Eugene B. Conrad III<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Airport Director Eugene B. Conrad III<\/strong> added, \u201cWe are preparing to embark on the largest infrastructure project the Lakeland Linder International Airport has undertaken since WWII. This new grant finalizes all the funding components for our $27 million Runway 9\/27 Rehabilitation and Strengthening project.  We are extremely grateful to Congressman Spano and his team, the FAA\u2019s Orlando ADO office, and our great partners at FDOT District 1 for believing in our vision<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao<\/strong>\u00a0likewise supports this investment, \u201cThe robust economy is enabling more passengers to travel by air so this Administration is investing billions of dollars in America\u2019s airports which will address safer operations, fewer airport delays, and greater ease of travel for air travelers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conrad said the contractor, Hubbard Construction of Winter\nPark, expects to have the runway mostly completed by the start of the Sun \u2019n\nFun Aerospace Expo, which runs from March 31 to April 5. The contractor will\ncease work for the air show and then resume it to complete the final elements,\nincluding the painting of stripes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Operations at Lakeland Linder will continue throughout the\nproject, Conrad said. Aircraft will have access to a second, 5,000-foot asphalt\nrunway, and at least an equal length of the new runway will be available as\ncrews pave the intersection of the two strips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conrad said the runway improvements don\u2019t necessarily make\nLakeland Linder more likely to attract commercial flights. The airport hasn\u2019t\nhosted a commercial carrier since Direct Air shut down in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Amazon announced its own $100 million investment in the airport. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland Linder International Airport has over 125,000 aircraft operations annually and is the 112th busiest airport in the United States. The airport is also home to the NOAA Hurricane Hunters, the Central Florida Aerospace Academy, and Polk State College\u2019s Aerospace programs. In May, Amazon announced its own $100 million investment in the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main runway extends 8,500 feet, or 1.61 miles. The\nasphalt of the runway now has an average depth of 3\u00bd inches, Conrad said, and\nthe project will increase that to a uniform thickness of 9 inches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FAA\u2019s current standards require that thickness for the\noperations that occur at Lakeland Linder, Conrad said. As part of the project,\ncrews will also reconstruct the runway\u2019s lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work will begin Dec. 2 and is scheduled to finish before\nJune, when Amazon will begin flights from a seven-jet cargo facility being\nconstructed at the airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded the Lakeland Linder International Airport with a special supplementary Airport Improvement Program (AIP) discretionary grant totaling $8,500,000. In September, the DOT had awarded Lakeland… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4,12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}