Behind the scenes as Redmond Airport closes

Redmond Municipal Airport kicked off its three-week closure Monday for a major runway repaving project — but there’s plenty of other activity underway.

The airport was far from silent, as area law enforcement began a multi-day regional “active shooter” drill in the nearly empty terminal.

As for the paving work, airport Security Manager Nicole Jurgensen said they’re literally working from the ground up.

“This is a very time and labor intensive project with the complete reconstruction,” Jurgensen said.

There will be no added or fewer areas for runways (which form the shape of the letter X), but complete replacement of the existing pavement to abide by current FAA regulations.

There’s plenty of details to cover and projects getting under way — everything from new wiring for runway and taxiway lights and filling in small cement cracks to installing a new airport security system — RDM is going through several changes.

And by repaving the primary runway to meet FAA standards now, by the time the secondary runway ends it’s pavement lifetime (20-30 years), the air field will not need to be shut down.

Jurgensen and other airport team members know how this is inconvenient for travelers.

“We didn’t want to impact the region too greatly in the summer, when everybody is busy. It’s still busy, it’s never a good time,” Jurgensesn said.

The contractor has crews about 50-60 people working 12 hours shift and working 24 hours a day 7 days a week to get it done as quickly as possible.

Jurgensen said there is contingency time built in the three weeks just in case things don’t go accordingly.

Construction will last through summer for a part of the runway, but that won’t affect air travel.

Jurgensen said it’s an exciting time for the airport team.

“It’s just one of those projects that has to get done and we’re looking forward to it getting done and completed and getting back in operation. That’s going to be a fun day,” Jurgensen said.