CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — Residents watching the recent Buffalo Niagara International Airport will soon be able to rest easy.
On Friday, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority announced that the first phase of construction is now complete.
"Thanks to the tireless efforts of our crew, runway 5-23 is now ready for use as of Friday September 1 and residents should see flight patterns returning to normal," an NFTA statement read.
The runway reconstruction project, which cost a total of $36 million from federal sources, was quite an undertaking for Buffalo Niagara International Airport and the NFTA. But unlike the experience of a lot of fliers this past summer with cancellations and delays we can tell you that this project is coming in right on its arrival schedule.
That may be good news for some people who complained about more noise with planes taking off and landing because of an adjustment in the flight patterns. That happened with the use of the backup runway.
Some of the work with the removal and replacement of half of the 8,880-foot runway's concrete base and asphalt surface was actually set up to coincide with airport operations. Khatib points out "We had work that was going on not only at night, but we had some that was overnight so that we made sure that there were absolutely no flights that were ever coming in or out at that time."
There was also work on the airport's taxiway for planes that were preparing for take-off or after landing as well as runway lighting and even tunnels under the runways.
This took place in the midst of a rather unusual post-COVID travel season. Khatib says: "There were so many different things that happened this summer. We had weather incidents. We had power incidents. We also had you know - pilot shortages - things like that. So it did have an effect on us but again as the season has started slowing down we're seeing that things are running smoother."
This is actually a multi-phase reconstruction project. Some runway work will happen in the fall of 2024, and the remainder of the project will happen in the summer of 2025.