The Methow Valley State Airport in Winthrop is getting a facelift.
The airport is largest of 16 airports managed by the Washington State Department of Transportation. This week crews finished the first two phases of the project. They rehabilitated a runway and widened a taxiway that connects to it.
WSDOT spokeswoman Christina Crea says the federal government covered 90% of the project cost, and the state chipped in the rest.
She says construction at the airport, which also serves as a smoke jumper base during fire season, was finished in time for the 2018 wildfire season.
“We know that, you know, it’s used as a smoke jumper base, and we did not want to interfere with fire season, so phase 1 and phase 2 we were originally hoping to finish that within the first 45 days and we met that goal,” Crea said. “That was definitely intentional, and we worked with lots of people to make that happen.”
The next phase, a parking upgrade, is currently underway on the west side of the area. The final phase, another parking improvement, will be done in the near future.