Madison County Journal
FAA grant funds $4 million runway rehabilitation at Madison airport
The city was recently awarded federal grant money to cover the majority of a $4 million improvement project at Bruce Campbell Field.
By Duncan Dent
MADISON — The city was recently awarded federal grant money to cover the majority of the $4 million cost of an improvement project at Bruce Campbell Field.
The runway rehabilitation project will overlay the existing runway, Pete Vozzo, the city's senior director of operations, said. The project to rehabilitate the airport is expected to begin next year in April, and with good construction weather, is expected to last no more than six weeks, Vozzo said.
“During this time, the runway will be entirely closed to airplanes,” Vozzo said. “Helicopters will still be able to use the airport.”
Vozzo said this project will not change the runway's dimensions or expand the airport’s capacity to accommodate larger aircraft.
“Larger airplanes than those landing now will not be landing in Madison,” Vozzo said.
The rehabilitation project will include etching grooves into the surface of the runway to increase the braking effect when the surface is wet. The city will also be re-painting the runway markings. At the north end of the runway, they will be leveling the sod area that runs beyond the end of the pavement.
“This leveling will increase safety in the event of an emergency overrun,” Vozzo said. “Also, for safety, there is a taxiway that now directly connects the north ramp to the active runway, and this will be removed to prevent a pilot from accidentally entering the runway when he thinks he is turning onto the taxiway.”
This project carries a price tag of $4,150,000. The project will be largely funded by a $3,972,510 grant administered by the Federal Aviation Administration. Additional funding will come from the Mississippi Department of Transportation and the Federal Strategic Multi-Model Investment Fund. Vozzo said the city will be on the hook for a small portion of the project as well.
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, announced on July 1 that nine municipal airfields in Mississippi have been awarded more than $17.3 million in Airport Improvement Program grant funding.
The 10 grants for Mississippi are among the Round 4 announcement of FY2026 AIP grants approved by the FAA, Smith’s office said. The awards meet the Airport Safety and Resilient Infrastructure Development eligibility and prioritization criteria.
“Airport Improvement Program grants will allow more Mississippi airfields to maintain and improve their facilities, and to bring them into compliance with current safety standards. All this work is increasingly important as our state acts to attract more jobs and economic development,” Hyde-Smith said.
Bruce Campbell Field received the third-largest contribution from these grants in the state. The two largest projects were two separate grants to the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Gulfport, in the amounts of $4,442,376 to acquire airfield pavement sweeper equipment, rehabilitate terminal apron and runway pavement, install a new airport rotating beacon, continue terminal apron pavement reconstruction, and replace the airfield lighting control and monitoring system and $3,998,989 to extend a runway and reconfigure certain taxiway connectors.
The smallest grant was awarded to Paul Pittman Memorial Airport in Walthall. They received $80,153 to construct an aircraft maintenance hangar.