Some money has already been promised by the state aviation commission, but the limitations on the new runway may decrease traffic to the beleaguered air base.
Airport commissioners were told by staff at a meeting Thursday that the only affordable method for building a new facility was strictly prohibited by current regulations.
Through a process known as rubblization, the airport could update its runway to handle 210,000 pounds for $4.4 million, which is significantly less than replacing it with a new concrete runway for $19 million.
However, the process would require laying four inches of asphalt on top and the state refuses to pay for asphalt runways that support more than 60,000 pounds.
Airport Engineer Dave Raley seemed baffled by this ruling as the minimum amount of asphalt the state requires for a runway is four inches.
Raley told The Laurinburg Exchange the airport is still working on the project and has not given up hope yet.
"We are still testing to see the best method of repairing the runway," Raley said. "There are several different methods ranging in cost from $19 million to about $5 million. We are trying to find innovative ways to get the strength we need without spending a lot of money."
W.K. Dickson, an engineering firm contracted by the airport, surveyed the runway on Thursday to see what can be done to the current structure.
The current runway is rated at 65,000 pounds.
"If an airplane that is heavier than that lands, it will damage the runway," Raley said. "Since the runway is in such bad shape already, it doesn't make a lot of difference."
Raley says the airport just issues a waiver for airplanes over that limit, something they could not do with a new runway.
"If we put in a new runway that will only handle 60,000 pounds, we can't issue waivers for these people to land on it because it will tear up the new runway. A runway is supposed to last 20 years, this one is 60 years old so if we are issuing a waiver, it doesn't hurt us any."
The issue is, the state has promised the airport $2 million for this year and another $2 million for next year, which is nearly enough to use the rubblization approach, but will not allow it because it would have too high of a rating for an asphalt runway.
"The new runway needs to be strong enough to handle any kind of airplane we want to land here... We are a multi-use airport and we have a lot of different kinds of airplanes come in."
Raley says the rubblization process involves breaking the concrete into chunks about a foot across.
"You break it up into pieces so you don't get what is called reflective cracking," Raley explained. "When you go out an pave over a 12 foot section of concrete, you have a lot of space there and when the temperature changes, it cracks where ever the seams were in the original panels. If you rubblize it, it minimizes it."
Raley says the engineer would then lay gravel over the concrete and then lays asphalt on top.
In other business, the airport's waste treatment passed its ninth consecutive toxicity test since resolving the issue with heavy metals in the output.
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