Dinwiddie Airport will get $270,000 for runway, other improvements: Senators

Bill Atkinson, The Progress-Index
·2 min read
This overhead shot of Dinwiddie Airport shows the runway that will benefit from the $270,000 Federal Aviation Administration grant announced Tuesday by Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine
This overhead shot of Dinwiddie Airport shows the runway that will benefit from the $270,000 Federal Aviation Administration grant announced Tuesday by Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

DINWIDDIE – The county airport will share in almost $4.3 million in federal funding earmarked for infrastructure improvements at several Virginia airfields.

The Dinwiddie Airport will get $270,000 from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Plan, according to a mutual announcement by Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. The money will be used to repair signs and markings on its main runway and do some pavement improvements along the airport’s apron shared by planes and ground vehicles.

In a statement, Kaine and Warner said local airports “play an important role in our economies.” The improvements to be financed by the FAA funding will help ensure passengers can safely get where they need to go.”

The FAA says on its website that airports are entitled to a certain amount of funding through the AIP grant program if their capital project needs exceed their available funds.

Other airports that received AIP funding Tuesday include Lynchburg Regional, Newport News/Williamsburg International, Farmville Regional, Ingalls Field in Hot Springs, New Kent County and Twin County in Hillsville.

So far this year, Virginia airports have received $43.4 million in federal dollars to fund improvements, including $29.4 million for Richmond International, Norfolk International and Washington Dulles International airports. Chesterfield County’s Richmond Executive Airport was granted $1.12 million for improvements to its apron.

As economic development has come to Dinwiddie County, so have improvements to the airport to accommodate more corporate-jet traffic. When Walmart opened its distribution center in 1991 in Sutherland, the airport was seen as a logical and convenient spot for company aircraft to land.

Since that time, Amazon and grocery-store chain Aldi opened distribution centers in the county in 2013 and 2018 respectively

More: 'Tri-Cities Executive Terminal' is unveiled at Dinwiddie Airport

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Dinwiddie Airport will get $270,000 for runway, other improvements