Study shows regional airport needs runway changes

By ROBERT BAKER
Item Staff Writer
bbaker@theitem.com

MANNING — The Santee Cooper Regional Airport is going to need a longer, realigned runway.

That was the major conclusion recently reached by an Airport Master Plan commissioned by the Clarendon County Aeronautics Commission. The plan was completed by Florence engineering firm Engineering Consultants Inc. and approved by Clarendon County Council during a regular meeting held Oct. 12.

“We can get funding from the (Federal Aviation Administration) for some of these recommendations, but we need the county’s support to do that,” said commission Chairman Hal Lowder.

Lowder said the demands outlined by the study echo the same demands that were outlined in a similar study commissioned in 1991, although funding issues as well as changing FAA regulations kept those demands from being met then.

“The upgraded design includes the new FAA safety requirements,” he said. “It verifies that the demand still exists; it verifies that air and land space are still adequate.”

The safety requirements, in particular, require a runway at least 5,800-feet long, Lowder said, which includes 1,000 feet of “safe space” on either side for safety concerns.

“(The FAA) made that change around 1998 or 1999 ... ,” Lowder said. “Before that, there was a requirement of about 500 feet at either end, but there were so many incidents of someone running into trees or running off the runway at various airports that they made the change.”

Other deficiencies noted in the plan include: the small parking apron, only one hangar with three spaces, a small terminal building and old runway lighting.

Lowder said that elongation of the current runway is impossible due to Lake Marion to the south and two historic churches to the north. County Grants Administrator Steve Harrington agreed.

“The FAA is not going to give us any funding to lengthen a runway that will interfere with those churches,” Harrington said, noting that Cypress UME Church and Jordan United Methodist Church could both be on the National Register of Historic Sites.

Lowder said the simplest solution would be to realign the runway, which means they would move it to face northwest and southeast.

“That will allow us to lengthen like we need to,” Lowder said.

He said the updated plan also reflects a population growth of 14.2 percent from 1990 to 2000.

He said one of the long-term goals of the plan is to have the airport be a place where the county can host corporate aviation, where industries can come directly to Clarendon County and see if they’d like to do business here.

“It’s a long-range plan, could be five, 10, 20 years before we see all of this happen,” Lowder said.

Lowder said that in order to realign the runway, the commission would need to acquire 198 acres of land.

“The Joseph Lemon Highway, which has only one occupied dwelling, will need to be re-routed and approximately six acres of wetlands will need to be mitigated through the (Army) Corps of Engineers,” Lowder said during a meeting held in September.

He said projects like the one proposed in the plan typically get started with about 95 percent funding from FAA, 2.5 percent funding from the state, and 2.5 percent from local funds.