NEW BEDFORD — State environmental officials have signed off on a plan to extend runway and runway safety areas and make other improvements at the New Bedford Regional Airport, meaning the facility has cleared its first major hurdle in a process intended to improve airport safety and operations, reports todays Standard-Times.
Ian A. Bowles, secretary of the state Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, has determined the Final Environmental Impact Report for the airport complied with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act. Now, the airport can move ahead with the permitting process.
Airport Manager Edward J. DeWitt said Wednesday that Bowles’ decision was the “first big hurdle” and now the airport is “ready to proceed with full environmental permitting.”
The project is estimated to cost $16 million. Under the current schedule, tree clearing would begin in 2010, construction in 2011 and completion by 2014. Improvements at the airport have been under discussion for more than a decade and have involved a wide range of possibilities, including a massive runway extension that would have enabled the facility to accept large cargo planes but also would have required significant expansion opposed by neighbors in New Bedford and Dartmouth. The large project has been abandoned.
