CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WKBW) — If you live in the Williamsville or Amherst area, you've heard the planes. If you drive by the airport or take a flight out of Cheektowaga, you've probably seen the construction trucks, but you may be wondering, what's actually being done out there?
"I see the construction trucks and see that they're working on the main runway, so I would only gather to say, I'm assuming they're working according to plan," said Mel Giokas, who lives in Williamsville and enjoys the extra sights and sounds.
What's the plan?
Throughout the summer, the NFTA is working to do some routine maintenance and safety enhancements, including:
- Installing 400+ new LED lights to guide the aircraft
- Improving the drainage
- Milling and the paving the runway
It's a $36 million project expected to last the next 20 years or so.
The airport will stay open, right?
Right, mostly. Around 60 workers are on sight daily getting the job done, while the airport uses other runways to stay open.
There is some work that needs to be done on runway intersections though, but crews will do that in off-peak hours on Saturday and Sunday nights.
With air traffic hitting record highs this summer and passengers at the airport up 22% from 2022 to 2023, NFTA officials say it's a must that the airport stays open.
"People are traveling and we're so happy about that right and that is why it was important to us to make sure that even though we have all this construction work that needed to be done... [we] keep that airport open so people can go ahead and make sure they're hitting those summer travel destinations," said Kelly Khatib, Communications Manager, NFTA.
When will work be done?
At the end of this summer. And you might be able to feel a difference.
"They should, should be a little bit of a smoother ride through the intersection of the two runways, nothing major, but a few differences," said Rick Hines, Resident Engineer for the construction project.
If you want to know more about the project, click here.
