Kwigillingok Airport Improvements
Project 52571

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (AKDOT&PF), in association with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing to rehabilitate the Kwigillingok Airport by widening the existing runway (RW) and runway safety areas (RSA) to meet current safety standards for an AII(s) design aircraft.

The purpose of this project is to improve the condition of the airport to meet current standards and increase safety for airplanes using the airport.

Kwigillingok Airport is composed of a single, unlighted, gravel‐surfaced runway, one taxiway, and one apron. The runway, designated as RW 15/33, is 40 feet wide and 1,835 feet long with only a 40‐foot wide by 2,315‐foot‐long runway safety area. The apron is irregularly shaped with a single bay snow removal equipment building and is offset 175 feet from the runway centerline. The last recorded project was a surface maintenance project in 2018 that placed crushed aggregate on the existing runway and taxiway.

The runway safety area (RSA) was 100' x 2950' in 1985 and has significantly narrowed after many years of settlement and erosion in the silty, wet, discontinuous permafrost environment. A 2018 preconstruction survey shows an embankment top between 40' to 45' wide and approximately 585' of embankment on the north end has overgrown and been abandoned. The existing runway and RSA are extremely narrow by current standards, at only 40' wide each, and short compared to most Alaskan rural airports with a runway only 1,835' long with a 2,315' RSA.

Work on this project includes:

• Rehabilitate, widen, and shift the existing runway embankment and widen the runway safety areas
• Rehabilitate the existing taxiway and apron
• Install a runway and taxiway lighting system
• Install erosion protection

Our project staff is currently working on updating the Plans, Specifications and Estimate for a 95% review.  Construction on this project is expected to begin in Summer 2025.

This project is being developed by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (AKDOT&PF), in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Updated: 7/10/2024