Rochester International Airport (RST) will mark another milestone in its multi-year runway improvement project in fall of 2024, when two miles of roads that were relocated to accommodate a runway extension will be opened to local traffic.
The completion of the road relocation project moves RST one step closer to the eventual 1,647-foot extension of Runway 3. The runway is being extended to improve safety and allow it to accommodate airport users when the primary runway is under construction and unavailable in the 2030s.
The road relocation project began in fall of 2023 with heavy equipment operators working to clear roads and utilities to the south of RST. After the old roads were cleared, crews reconstructed the roads in different locations that were clear of all future runway safety areas. The project involved the relocation of 90th St. SW, 95th St. SW and 31st Ave. SW.
Matt Wagner, the aviation project manager from Mead & Hunt who is overseeing RST’s efforts, notes that the new roads are improved. 95th Street SW has been upgraded from a minimum maintenance gravel roadway to a two-lane paved road.
In addition to the road relocation, approximately two miles of petroleum pipeline was similarly re-routed to make way for the runway extension. A new 10-inch diameter steel pipeline was installed along a relocated route between May and July of 2024.
The completion of the roadway and pipeline relocation projects signals the end of Phase 3 (of 6) of RST’s Runway 3/21 Reconstruction & Extension Project which kicked off in 2021. Previous improvements completed as part of the multi-year, multi-phase $80 million project include reconstructing and reconfiguring runways and taxiways as well as upgrading the instrument landing system to improve pilots’ abilities to land aircraft in very low visibility.
Phase 4, which will begin this fall, entails establishing the grade of the future Runway 3 extension. “We will be moving approximately 2 million cubic yards of clay and silt material, making it one of the largest earth-moving projects in the state of Minnesota,” Wagner says. “We’re literally moving hillsides to build up the grade for the future Runway 3 extension.”
Funding for all phases of the Runway 3/21 (previously named Runway 2/20) Reconstruction & Extension Project is made possible through federal, state, and local dollars.
