Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport received three grants totaling over $27 million to fund utilities, the runway realignment project and construction of a taxiway.

Tony Bean, the airport’s executive director, said the first grant amount is $76,495. The second grant is $24.9 million and the third grant is $2.4 million.

Bean said the first grant will fund utilities for the airport. The second grant will fund the finalization of the realignment of the runway, the construction of the taxiway and containing drainage.

“The first half of the taxiway will be constructed in 2020 and the second half will be constructed in 2021,” he said.

He said the third grant will be used to purchase new equipment for the airport.

The first and second grants were awarded to PMRA by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as discretionary funds. Bean said discretionary funds is money awarded to airports by the FAA based on priority ranking. The third grant is an entitlement grant, which is money given each year to airports.

Bean said airports can bank, loan or donate their entitlement funds. He said the airport got entitlement funding from Bellingham International Airport and Friday Harbor Airport.

He said the third grant will be used to update the airport’s current snow removal equipment such as a new multi-tool snow plow and a liquid deicing vehicle. He said the grant will also fund an emergency airfield generator for the new runway.

“Our timeline is to have the runway realignment project completed in its entirety by the end of 2021,” he said. “That will be done over two construction seasons 2020 and 2021.”

Bean said PMRA will be closing for a month during the runway construction as well as experience several small closures during the taxiway construction.

“We’re just excited to finalize the project that we have been working on for many, many years,” he said.