Sedona-Oak Creek Airport is slated to have several repair and upgrade projects in order to keep planes safely in the air, and continue its economic impact of $18 million according to a 2021 study by the Arizona Department of Transportation 

The first project will be carried out by Cactus Asphalt; they will be crack sealing, seal coating and remarking the airport’s runway at the total cost of $1.4 million. The project is grant funded by the Arizona Department of Transportation and a little over 4.4% was paid by local participation with the monies raised from aviation user fees according to Airport Manager, Ed Rose.

“This is just an example of infrastructure maintenance and safety oriented projects that we perform here on a regular basis,” Sedona Airport General Manager Ed Rose said. “It’ll be a pretty simple sealcoating and remarking of that pavement. The unfortunate thing is that’s going to take eight or nine days to get done, and the runway has to be closed. So there’s the lost air traffic and revenue that nine days represents.”

SOCAA’s anticipated closure dates are: May 22 through June 4, when the taxiway work to take. And June 5 through June for the runway work, Rose said. The closure shouldn’t affect helicopters companies that use the facility according to airport staff.

This particular project rehabilitates the entire SOCAA taxiway system. The top inch of the taxiway will be milled off and fills any cracks that are beneath that layer. Then reapplies a one inch wear surface and the second half of the project is the runway rehabilitation, according to Rose who added “This is just an example of infrastructure maintenance and safety oriented projects that we perform here on a regular basis.”

Fuel Storage

A $4 million fuel storage replacement project is anticipated to have it’s ribbon cutting ceremony around the end of May or early June according to Rose who added its finalization is depended  on the contractor’s ability to get the system commissioned and accepted by SOCAA 

“We currently have 10,000 gallons of jet fuel storage and 10,000 gallons of aviation gasoline storage, this project increases the storage capacity to 30,000 gallons of jet fuel and 12,000 gallons of aviation gasoline,” this is to accommodate increased air traffic at the airport Rose said. 

The volume of fuel demanded has increased tremendously, last year the airport used 418,000 gallons of jet fuel through a 10,000 gallon tank. The current fuel storage has been putting the airport in a precarious position to be able to service corporate and private visitors as well as the forest service firefighting, according to Rose. 

“There’s a lot of juggling to make sure you have enough fuel to supply the needs of your clients.” Rose said. “This will remove a lot of angst over those fuel ordering episodes and the monitoring of inventory.”

Currently three or four airplanes have the potential to drain 80% of what the airport has on property at one time with the current fuel storage tanks which are showing signs of age and rust, SOCAA Line Technician Mark Allen pointed out at the construction site. 

“That will be a game-changer for us,” Allen said. “We don’t know when flights are coming in because we don’t have scheduled traffic here. It’s hard to predict, sometimes nobody takes any fuel for a day or two and then all of a sudden there’s a run on it. For instance, in the last week we sold 2000, 3000 and 2000 gallons in three consecutive days. So that’s 7,000 gallons and that tank down there holds 10,000 [gallons].  We currently have deliveries of fuel … twice a week to make sure that we don’t run out. We probably only get out of gas once a month.” 

The new fuel storage also comes with safety upgrades such as overfill protection, grounding assurance and spill protection with a new catchment system that also separates fuel from rainwater runoff. 

Runway Safety

More extensive SOCAA infrastructure upgrades will also soon be going before Sedona residents at a total cost of over $33 million. Among the plans are: the acquisition of 2.6 acres of adjacent forest service land, the relocation of a section of Airport Loop Trail because of safety concerns of hikers being too close to takeoff and landing aircraft, and the installation of engineered material arresting systems at the runway ends, Rose said.   

“An EMS as they’re called arrests the forward inertia of aircraft and in our case it’ll keep aircraft from rolling off the end of the runway and down off the precipice at either end of the runway,” Rose said. “There have been aircraft that have gone off again before we know that there have been [fatalities] involved with those accidents, and we’re doing what we can with our FAA, ADOT and engineering partners to come up with life saving solutions. [This is] not a runway extension, [this is] simply safety enhancements.”

There are upcoming  community outreach meetings May 22 at the Sedona United Methodist Church from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and then at the Sedona library the May 23, from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. to introduce airport safety projects to the citizens of Sedona and gather feedback on the design, Rose said.