ESCANABA — Delta County Airport began work to rehabilitate runway 18/36 and parallel taxiway on May 9. The project is scheduled to last through the summer and is anticipated to have no impact on commercial air service.

The $2.5 million dollar joint-funded project will be between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Delta County Airport, and Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). The project will use funds only generated from aviation-related excise taxes through the FAA’s Aviation Trust Fund and Passenger Facility Charges assessed by Delta County Airport and MDOT.

Delta County Airport is a small non-hub airport and part of the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) which is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets and use to assess existing airports significant to the national air transportation in the U.S. Because of its status, Delta County receives an entitlement grant which overs 95% of eligible costs of improvements to maintain airport safety and infrastructure.

The current project includes milling and overlay of both the cross-wind runway 18/36 and Alpha taxiway, along with replacing the taxiway lights with energy-efficient LED lights.