The next round of expansion at the Wood County Airport/Collins Field should be underway next year.

At the annual (though not held last year) appreciation luncheon Friday, community leaders learned that the plans to expand the apron along with drainage and parking improvements are nearing completion.

The $1.75 million project, funded 90% by the Texas Dept. of Transportation aviation division and 10% locally, is scheduled to have engineering work completed by Dec. 1, and following final TxDOT review, bids should go out by Feb. 1, with the project let in March and construction commencing in April. It will take about five months to complete.

Engineer Craig Phipps with KSA Engineering explained that the apron is under-sized, and when there is a lot of traffic at the airport, it can get congested.

The expansion will increase the area for plane tie-downs from two acres to about 4.5 and raise the number of sites from 12 to 33.

It will also allow improvements to drainage which would allow access to an area behind the terminal for two additional larger hangars.

The airport receives calls weekly about hangar space, and the demand is for larger hangars, 60 by 100 feet.

Additional hangar space would also be created by the next anticipated project, adding two taxi lanes to the east, one on either end of the airport, which would allow additional space to be accessed where more hangars could be constructed.

And long term, the airport board continues its effort to secure funding so that the runway can be lengthened by 1,000 feet to 5,000, widened by 15 feet to 75 and strengthened from a 12,500 pound rating to 30,000.

That would allow Collins Field to accommodate smaller corporate jets, whose insurance requires a 5,000-foot minimum.

“That would open it up for a lot of corporate business jet travel,” Phipps said. “It would be a perfect facility for that.”

Board chairman Randy Bateman said the need was demonstrated, fortunately with no injuries or damage, when a small jet recently attempted to land but did not get down soon enough and was further complicated by a wet runway. The jet went about 250 feet off the south end of the runway, with the only real damage that it was covered in mud and had to be towed out.

Bateman noted it was fortunate that the jet was landing to the south, because there is a ditch off the north end of the runway (the direction of the expansion plan).

Phipps showed the results of a recent economic impact study for Texas airports. Of the 289, 25 are commercial and 264 are general aviation, like Wood County’s.

Total job creation is almost 800,000 with a $30 billion payroll and overall impact of $94 billion.

For Wood County those numbers are 13 jobs, $378,000 payroll and $1.4 million overall impact.