CHARLESTON, W.Va. — While the Federal Aviation Administration has made the decision to formally discontinue an environmental study to expand a runway at West Virginia International Yeager Airport, airport officials say it could potentially be put back on the table in the future.
For now, however, the FAA and the board at CRW are overlooking the Environmental Impact Statement the runway expansion project would fall under and shifting their focus to the major terminal renovation project they plan to get underway, a project they are now deeming CRW Next.
Wednesday, the airport board approved a one year contract extension with Ricando and Associates, the group they have been working with to conduct the EIS. This would allow them to continue an analysis of future potential runway expansion at the airport.
Dominique Ranieri
For now though, the plan is shifting to the Terminal Modernization and Renovation project, which CRW President and CEO Dominque Ranieri said was initially part of the Airfield, Safety and Terminal Improvement project as whole.
“It was looking at the comprehensive airfield requirements with FAA’s safety standards, as well as our terminal project, but now our terminal project has been extracted from that environmental process so we can move forward with it which is what we talked about today, and the runway will continue being studied for the most appropriate project,” Ranieri told MetroNews.
As part of the now canceled airfield portion of the project, it was originally being proposed to shift and extend Runway 5-23, allowing for a Runway Safety Area to meet FAA safety compliance standards. This would have potentially extended that runway into nearby Coonskin Park.
The original notice of intent for the project proposed back in 2022 rose up opposition from one environmental group known as Save Coonskin Park. Since then, they have conducted petitions and held protests advocating against the move.
Save Coonskin spokesperson Jeremy Severn told MetroNews Wednesday following the cancelation of the EIS that when the FAA and airport board made the decision to pause the study earlier this year, they planned to continue fighting for the park despite celebrating the victory.
Those with Save Coonskin Park held a rally last August. (Photo/WCHS-TV)
He said while it’s more relieving to hear that the project has been canceled altogether for the time being, the group is still going to keep their guard up.
“We’re celebrating this new victory while continuing the long-term fight,” Severn said. “Do I like the word cancel better than pause? Well, yeah, that’s a much better word, it’s a stronger word, but the Save Coonskin Park organization is still going to remain vigilant, we’re not going anywhere.”
Severn said this wasn’t the first time the airport had made propositions to come into the adjacent Coonskin Park. He said there was a similar study proposed about 20 years ago that never went as far as this EIS did.
Because the airport and park are so close together, Severn said he expects there will always be an ongoing battle to expand airport operations into Coonskin, but despite that, he doesn’t want to understate this particular victory.
“Everything is indicating that this particular project is not moving forward,” he said. “What we need to keep an eye on now is any future projects that come up, that’s the key.”
Severn said the Save Coonskin Park Facebook group will still remain accessible and they will continue to welcome any and all support of the movement.
Ranieri said with the airport’s focus now turning to the terminal renovation portion of the project, there’s a lot they have in store at CRW to transform the building into a terminal of the future.
She said this means some of it will involve demolition of some of the current building.
Ranieri said the concourses at the airport, specifically gates A and C are on airfield level, meaning they are built directly onto the aircraft apron.
“That doesn’t really work for the larger aircraft we are seeing here at the airport and into the future that we anticipate on having here at the airport, so those two concourses will be demolished and we will be adding onto the building at the B Gate level,” Ranieri said.
She said the B Gate level is where passengers come out of security and where they see the concessions and larger hold rooms. Ranieri said this addition they plan to construct on this portion of the building will also mean no more stairs and elevators as everything will be on the same level.
The end result of the project will consist of five mainline gates which will be able to sustain all of the aircraft they currently accommodate at Yeager Airport.
Ranieri said as they expand the physical structure of the terminal, it will lead to further growth for the airport as well.
“It’s important to attracting additional air service here at the airport, certain airlines definitely want to make sure we have the most up-to-date facilities, and it helps us with our revenue as well, we will have more concession space and a much less expensive operation of the building itself,” she said.
Ranieri said estimated cost of the terminal renovation project is between $60 million to $77 million dollars. She said so far they are working to acquire competitive federal terminal money to help fund the project, in addition to securing some Congressionally Designated Spending grants.
Ranieri said efforts to renovate and modernize the facility is very exciting as CRW looks ahead to the future in air travel.
“There are so many awesome things that are coming to CRW with our partnership with Breeze, we are seeing larger aircraft, and we just want to make sure we can support any flight that any of our airlines would like to operate to and from CRW,” Ranieri said.