WINCHESTER, Tenn. - The runway, tarmac and ramp passing under Winchester Airport Authority Chairman Carey Wofford's golf cart is smooth as glass, black as jet and now meets current standards of the Federal Aviation Administration.
"We've come a ways," Wofford said Thursday as he cruised from one end of the airport to the other showing off improvements under way or completed over the last two years.
Barring any new problems, Wofford said, work remaining in the two-year, multimillion-dollar project should be finished in early December.
On Thursday, officials attending a project status meeting discussed a storage hangar being built for a Hawker 800 jet owned by Hi-Tech Mold & Engineering S.E. Inc.
The hangar is slightly behind schedule because of a building materials delay.
Wofford said those materials should be delivered by November.
"The runway, T-hangars and lighting projects will wrap up over the next few weeks," he said. The new T-hangars are already occupied.
A new FAA regulation says connectors between the runway and taxiway must be separated from the now-larger and resurfaced ramp area. That's where aircraft can park to fill up on aviation gas or jet fuel. The redesign to meet those standards reduces chances of planes crossing paths while taxiing or leaving the ramp area.
"Until this project, you had to taxi onto the runway and back taxi in order to take off to the north," said Wofford, a pilot for the past 47 years. "Now you can taxi to either end without getting on the runway."
"This is a big safety factor to have a full-length taxiway," he said.
Jon Foote, owner of Elevation Inc. and CEO of Missionaire International, said the updates were among the deciding factors in his move to Winchester from Tompkinsville, Ky. Now his businesses operate out of the old terminal building he has renovated.
That building was replaced several years ago by a new mountain stone terminal.
"It's fabulous," Foote said. "Some of the improvements they made really made it conducive to our coming."
The taxiway work and the available space in the old terminal building sealed the deal, he said.
Franklin County officials recognize how important an airport is to local industries and businesses, Wofford said.
"Practically all of the industries in this area at some point have utilized the airport," he said.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.