The site of the future taxiway connector is shown in orange.

Cullman Regional Airport is set to receive some improvements after the Cullman City Council approved bids for new projects during Monday night’s meeting. 

The council awarded a bid to Wiregrass Construction Company for the relocation of a taxiway connector at the airport.

The city council and Cullman County Commission will each pay $17,065 for the project, with $34,130 in state funding and $614,326 in federal money. 

New regulations say airports are no longer allowed to have a direct connection between a runway and a parking apron, so the Cullman Regional Airport’s midfield connector will be moved around 700 feet south, said Airport General Manager Ben Harrison. 

“We’re just picking it up and moving it south,” he said.

The connector will be built to new standards that will allow for larger planes to use it, and the project will also clear up some drainage issues that have been present in the area, Harrison said.

The council also awarded a bid for clearing and grubbing at the south end of the airport to RPF Emergency Services, LLC, and that project should clear up an issue that the airport has been facing for a long time, Harrison said.

“This has been a problem for years, and by years I mean decades,” he said. 

Harrison said the airport’s precision approach path indicator lights (PAPI), which provide guidance for pilots as they make their final approach to the runway, have been off for some time because of the issues with the approach caused by the trees. 

Removing those trees from the parcels of land on the south end of the airport will open up the south runway and allow for nighttime landings, he said.

“Once this project is done, we will get back to having a good approach on [Runway] Two, we’ll have a good PAPI surface on Two,” he said. “It will make every person who flies into the airport happy once they see it. It’s going to be much better.”

For the clearing, the city and county will each pay $162,250.

The council also passed a resolution to enter into a contract with Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood for engineering services related to the replacement of the airport’s Automated Weather Observing System.

The city and county will each pay $30,000, with the state providing $60,000 in matching funding.

The AWOS provides information such as wind speeds, visibility, precipitation and other things that are vital for planes that are taking off and landing, and corporate and charter airplanes require an AWOS for them to use an airport, Harrison said. 

“They will not come into the airport without weather,” he said. 

The airport’s current AWOS has a piece that is going bad, and it is reaching the end of its operational life, so it’s a good idea to move forward with a replacement, Harrison said.