Associated Press Published

Yeager Airport Submits $14M Interim Runway Safety Proposal

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Yeager Airport officials have submitted emergency infrastructure proposal to the West Virginia Department of Transportation, calling for the installation of a new system to stop planes that overshoot the end of the runway.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that the $14 million plan for a new Engineered Materials Arresting System is intended to be an interim safety project in advance of a $175 million long-term plan to lengthen the runway from 6,802 feet to 8,000 feet and add safety overrun space.

The EMAS is a bed of concrete blocks that breaks down if an airplane overruns the runway. The previous EMAS was destroyed in a 2015 landslide.

The proposal will be one of five infrastructure proposals submitted to President Donald Trump by Gov. Jim Justice.