Miramar-based Marines in conjunction with the Catalina Conservancy will help repair the aging runway on Santa Catalina island’s only airport.
The $5 million runway repair project will be funded by donations to the conservancy, a nonprofit organization, officials announced Tuesday.
The repair operation will upgrade the airport and provide the Marines with a training base to prepare troops for deployment to repair airfields in foreign stations.
“We are excited to work with the Catalina Island Conservancy and take advantage of a unique opportunity to plan, train, and deploy our Marines and
Sailors to execute a construction mission that will test and develop critical skills,” said Lt. Col. James W. Bauch, commanding officer of Marine Wing Support Squadron 373.
The work will begin Dec. 16 and is expected to be completed March 30.
“The Airport in the Sky is an historic and critical asset providing access to Catalina Island for first responders, travelers and more than two million tons of freight each year. Although privately owned by the nonprofit Catalina Island Conservancy, the Airport in the Sky is operated as a public airport serving the island’s 4,000 residents, businesses and one million annual visitors,” Catalina Island Conservancy President and CEO Tony Budrovich said.
“After about two years of working together, we have entered into this win-win partnership between the Conservancy and the Marines to repair the runway, which is aged and beyond its useful life,” Budrovich said. “With this runway project, I would project more than 75 years of runway operations in our future.”
— City News Service
