The city of Hartsville awaits federal and state approval on its applications for grant money that will go toward the rehabilitation of runway lighting at Hartsville Regional Airport. However, far from the end goal, this project is just one of many ongoing incremental improvements to the facility.

Upon its completion, the city will apply for another grant for the next phase of this project and so on for other such projects. This process is expected to continue for at least the next six years, though it is one that some think is long overdue.

In December, Hartsville City Council had passed resolutions 12-25-02 and 12-25-03 to apply for US Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration and SC Aeronautics Commission grants, respectively, for upgrades to Hartsville Regional Airport,

On Dec. 11 the city had filed the application for a $200,000 FAA grant for the design, bidding and categorical exclusion phase of rehabilitation of airfield lighting. A categorical exclusion is a provision under the National Environmental Policy Act that allows certain federal actions to be excluded from detailed environmental review and a measure that “can reduce paperwork and save time and resources,” according to the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Brandon Brown, Hartsville's director of business services and administrative contact for the airport, said in an email that the city has been operating Hartsville Regional Airport since January 1966, adding the current lighting had been installed in the 1980s.

“The only thing that has been changed is the lightbulbs,” Brown said over the phone. “We're looking for a full LED conversion on that.”

If the FAA approves the grant, the agency will pay 95% of it, or $190,000, while Hartsville and SC Aeronautics will each pay 2.5%, or $5,000. Brown said, “We put our best foot forward with the application we submit and hope for the best ... I would say our chances for approval are pretty good.”

According to Brown, the FAA bases approval on a number of factors: How you’ve done on previous grants and the submission of a five-year capital-improvement plan, as well as competition from other airports for grants. He hopes approval will come “around the summer. That would be best-case scenario.”

That's just for this first phase. Funding for the actual construction on lighting would come from a separate grant.

For the lighting work, the airport has tapped engineering firm Talbert, Bright and Ellington LLC, which has offices in Charlotte and Columbia. “I work with both,” Brown said, adding the company will handle bidding for construction when it comes time.

According to Brown, “From the design and bidding phase ... to end of construction, you’re really looking at about two to three years.”

Brown said the lighting rehabilitation is one of the city’s many gradual improvements to the airport, the first of which was construction of a new terminal. This current phase comes after the complete rehabilitation of the airport’s runway, a $5.2 million undertaking that had finished in July. Brown said the runway had been “completely torn up and all new asphalt put down.”

The airport is currently in the design phase of an expansion of its ramp, and coming up will be the complete rehabilitation to lighting, as well as rehabilitation and extension of the taxiway. Brown said the city has already received a grant for the design, bidding and categorical exclusion phase of the rehabilitation of the apron, adding that he expects the grant for actual construction on the apron to come in late this year.

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