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The Cloquet Carlton County Airport received a $1.282 million Airport Improvement Program grant from the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this month, and the Carlton County board of commissioners signed off on the grant this week.
Airport manager Quinten Anderson said once it's done, the airport will have two "like new" runways.
The FAA grant will pay for rehabilitating runway 7/25 at the facility at 125 Wheaton Road on the west side of Cloquet, following the completion of runway 18/36 earlier this year. That was a $1.5 million reconstruction project, largely funded by the same FAA grant from the year before.
There have been runways on that site for close to 88 years. Created as a private airstrip around 1931, the city of Cloquet acquired the airport in 1934, said Anderson, who researched the history at the Carlton County Historical Society. In 1968, Carlton County took over management of the airport.
With Airport Improvement Program grants covering 90-95 percent of eligible costs for general aviation airports, Carlton County and the Minnesota Department of Transportation's Office of Aeronautics will each pay $71,275, while the FAA grant will cover $1.282 million which includes design, construction, inspection services and closeout.
Anderson, who has been airport manager of both the Moose Lake and Cloquet airports for 21 years, said the FAA conducts pavement maintenance inspections every three years. They started talking to the FAA about pavement rehabilitation the year before last, got bid estimates and completed the grant applications for both runways at the Cloquet airport. The FAA decides which projects are higher-priority and Cloquet landed on the list.
The existing runway pavement will be ground up and mixed with new oils for a new base, and workers will pave over the top of the base.
"We did the same thing in Moose Lake close to eight years ago," Anderson said. "We have had really good luck with pavements down there with this type of project."
Runway 7/25 was constructed in 1999-2000 and is 3,100 feet long. Runway 18/36 is 4,000 feet long and was last repaved in 1989.
Anderson said he expects the new runways to last at least 20 years each, and hopes for 30 years.
A variety of businesses use the Cloquet Carlton County Airport. Anderson said Boldt Construction will sometimes fly in and out, some medical helicopters such as Life Link and North Memorial fly into Cloquet if they get weathered out of Duluth. The Minnesota State Patrol, Department of Natural Resources and Fond Du Lac Reservation also use the airport. Its largest user is Venture North Aviation - owned and operated by Bill Stone - which conducts accelerated flight training there.