A May 2018 draft of the airport layout drawing for the proposed Oak Ridge Airport at East Tennessee Technology Park along State Route 58 in west Oak Ridge. (Image courtesy Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority/Michael Baker International)
A layout plan has been submitted for the proposed Oak Ridge Airport, and now officials are waiting for a response from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The response could arrive any day, according Bill Barley, vice president of CHA Consulting, which has an office in Louisville. Barley and Mike Reiter of Michael Baker International, an architectural firm, gave an update about the Oak Ridge Airport project during a meeting of the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority Board of Commissioners at McGhee Tyson Aiport in Alcoa on Wednesday.
The letter from the FAA could be a conditional approval, which is standard, Barley said.
If approved and funded, the airport would have a 5,000-foot runway, and it would be built on the south side of the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge. It would be near Highway 58, on 170 acres of land that have been declared excess by the U.S. Department of Energy. The runway could run roughly parallel to the highway.
Here are a few images from the draft airport master plan in May for the proposed Oak Ridge Airport, courtesy of Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority and Michael Baker International. [Read more…]
