From Aspen Times September 25, 2024
The Aspen-Pitkin County Airport released the dates for its annual spring closure. The airport will be closed for runway pavement maintenance from May 5, 2025, to June 1, 2025.
“Due to the facility’s aging airfield pavement, the airport must perform yearly maintenance on its runway, taxiway, and aprons,” a Pitkin County news release states.
The 2025 closure will last 27 days compared to 2024’s 18 days “with the possibility of extending further in future years as the need for repairs increases,” the news release states.
Over the almost four week long closure, the airport will be closed during Memorial Day weekend and school graduations, but Airport Director Dan Bartholomew said these were the only dates that would work.
“It’s not warm enough before graduation,” he said during an open comment period at a Pitkin County Board of Commissioners work session Tuesday, just after the news release was posted.
Bartholomew is unsure if 27 days is enough time to make all of the repairs, which will be phased. The phases that cannot be accomplished in the 27 days will be completed during the night or, if possible, while the airport is still open. Emergency winter closures may also be necessary.
The runway will close at 9 a.m. on May 5, so that flights can get out, and it will reopen on June 1 at 7 p.m. so that flights can come in. Lodging and transportation accommodations may also be available to travelers to make up for the closure.
“This is a test bed for when the runway is actually closed for replacement,” Bartholomew said.
On Aug. 22, 2023, the results of a May 2023 pavement study and an update on the condition of the airport’s runway were presented to Pitkin County commissioners from airport staff and engineering consultant representatives.
The study showed “cracking, patching, and weathering” on the runway’s surface and severe degradation underneath it.
In a core sample, 14 inches of asphalt were extracted, and the bottom seven inches fell apart after extraction.
Casey Adamson of Kimley-Horn, the engineering consultant firm on the study, said during the presentation that the runway has been “quilted together” since the initial pavement was poured in 1957 from various extensions and widening of the runway. This has contributed to its degradation, specifically on the inner portion of the runway where aircraft land.
“The pavement’s not going to fail tomorrow, but it’s not something we can ignore either,” Bartholomew said.
Weeks-long pavement maintenance will continue on an annual basis until a longer-term solution is found. The first step toward a solution will be the approval of the Airport Layout Plan, Bartholomew said.
The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to approve the Airport Layout Plan sometime in 2025. Until then, the airport forgoes millions of dollars in federal funds that would cover 90% of the $120 million it will take to replace the airport’s runway.
Two ballot questions relating to the airport, however, may put a dent in the airport’s plans for the runway replacement.
Ballot measure 1C, the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners’ ballot question, seeks to amend Article II of the county’s governing document, the Home Rule Charter, to reaffirm Pitkin County’s power to approve and carry out the layout plan for the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport.
Ballot measure 200, Citizens Against Bigger Planes’ ballot question, seeks to amend the Home Rule Charter to restrict county officials’ decision-making power regarding the expansion or relocation of any runway at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport beyond the dimensions and locations that existed on Jan. 1 without voter approval in their ballot question. It also clearly defines “runway.”
Pitkin County asks travelers to contact their airline for specific travel-related arrangements or the airport’s Fixed-Base Operator for General Aviation inquiries.
Regan Mertz can be reached at 970-429-9153 or rmertz@aspentimes.com.
