Pilots who use Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gainesville should be aware of upcoming runway closures as an airport rehabilitation project gets underway.
The City of Gainesville said in a press release Wednesday morning Runway 5-23 will be closed from May 30 to June 25. Runway 11-29 will be closed May 30 to June 6.
"The City thanks the public for its patience during this progress," the press release reads.
The project will see the runways undergo major improvements, costing about $5 million.
City manager Bryan Lackey told AccessWDUN in December 2022 the project has been in the pipeline for a while. He said he was looking forward to finally getting improvements underway.
“Well, it's been on our plan, that airport, which has conjunction with the FAA and GDOT that needs to be upgraded,” Lackey said. “We've had, I guess, through COVID and other supply chain issues, a limited amount of bidders on the project that GDOT was concerned about. So we've been through the procurement process two or three times on this and finally gotten them satisfied with a bidder that we have on the project, which we're excited about. So we're ready to move forward finally with it with a much needed renovation to our main primary runway.”
Lackey said providing a safe and well-maintained runway will help bolster the economic status of the Gainesville community.
