Upgrades coming in for landing at airport

Goal is to improve runway safety

The El Dorado Airport Commission is working on several projects to improve runway safety at South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field.

For months, the airport commission has lined up plans for the improvements in order to comply with Federal Aviation Administration standards regarding Runway Protection Zones.

The commission has recently taken

several steps to advance plans for the projects, including purchasing property to have clear and easy access to trees that need trimming or clearing, approving a bid for tree clearing and grubbing and installing a new precision approach path indicator (PAPI) to improve visibility for takeoff and landing.

“It’s progressing right along and, hopefully, that will be accomplished. That’s one of those things that was hanging around out there and not making a lot of progress,” said Mickey Murfee, chairman of the airport commission.

“We put in this PAPI for the shorter runway (13) and we’ve acquired the land that was affecting our ability to turn it on so now we can get the trees cut and make it a safe landing zone for pilots to use the shorter runway,” Murfee said.

Airport manager Johnathan Estes said the bid for the timber clearing and grubbing will focus on the approach to runway 13 and the PAPI will mainly assist with visibility on runway 13-31.

The bid for the timber project went to Hope contractor Taylor Hendrix, LLC, for $280,533.76.

It is the second bid the airport commission has recently approved for a timber cut.

A bid of $24,637.50 was recently awarded to Canfor Southern Pine for a select timber-cut that is needed to develop the site for a new Arkansas conservation and education center that will be built on SARA grounds.

The facility will take up approximately 13 acres on the west side of Airport Drive across from the old Babe Ruth baseball field and will be managed and operated by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, who describes its nature and conservation education centers as “part classroom, part museum and part playground (that) help people of all ages better understand their natural surroundings.”

The center will offer several activities that are oriented toward the outdoors, including a fishing pier; static and 3-D archery ranges; a BB-gun shooting station; a nature trail with interactive panels; and more amenities.

Plans for the facility’s interior call for display areas, including an aquarium, an activity area, a classroom, office space, hunter/boater-safety testing areas, restrooms and a gift shop, where hunting and fishing licenses will be sold.

The airport commission is partnering with the El Dorado City Council, AGFC, Arkansas Department of Aeronautics and the FAA on the project, the cost of which will be covered by the state.

The conservation education center will be the first in South Arkansas.

Aviation components have also been incorporated into the project, with AGFC officials noting that the commission uses airplanes to monitor game movement and population.

For the AGFC and all aviation activity, the airport needs to make sure runway visibility for pilots is as clear as possible, Estes said.

“In the interest of safety, we decided to have those trees cut. Instead of going back to landowners every few years, we purchased the land itself and we’ll be maintaining that area like we do the runway,” he explained. “It’s for runway 13 to secure a safe flight path for planes that are taking off and landing.”

He said the timber clearing will apply to the airport’s Runway Protection Zone, which extends 1,000 feet at the end of the runway, noting that the trees are just past the RPZ.

“If the trees grow up too high, airplanes have a chance of hitting when they land,” Estes said.

Murfee said that the runway improvements and plans for the conservation center slowed because of the coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic and inclement weather but he hopes the work will pick up soon.

Terminal rehabilitation

“The next big project is to get the funding for the rehabilitation and restoration of the terminal. COVID has also nipped that in bud,” Murfee said.

Rehabbing the postWWII-era terminal is a project that has been years in the making.

The terminal was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018, three years after proposal by the airport commission to tear down the facility and build a new terminal building was halted by local, state and federal historic preservationists.

Murfee was the only commissioner to vote no on the proposal to raze the existing terminal and build anew, following years of discussions about how best to upgrade and repair the facility.

In 2015, commissioners voted to build anew at an estimated cost of $2.1 million, versus a refit of the existing building for an estimated $1.9 million.

By late 2019, preliminary cost estimates had increased only slightly, architect Blake Dunn, of CADM Architecture, Inc., reported to commissioners.

The commission solicited the help of the Diamond Agency to come up with an education and awareness campaign to help raise money for the rehab project.