The Powell Municipal Airport will be a lot safer after the construction of a taxiway extension. Currently, pilots departing runway 13 — which points south toward Powell — must taxi onto the runway and turn around at the end to get lined up for takeoff.

During that process, arriving aircraft have to wait for the runway to clear. Departing pilots use a common frequency to announce to arriving pilots they’re on the runway, but this doesn’t always work. A pilot might not hear an arriving pilot announce his intention to land, and Airport Manager Scott Atkins said pilots in older planes are sometimes using a hand-held radio with a limited range.

The new taxiway “is going to make for safer operations in general,” Atkins said.

The total cost of the project, including design fees, is $1.25 million. Powell paid just under $42,000 of that. The State of Wyoming kicked in another $62,500, and the federal government covered the rest.

The funding for construction was part of a round of grants that awarded $7.2 million to 10 airports in Wyoming — including $1.4 million for the Yellowstone Regional Airport in Cody. The work at the Cody airport will increase the number of parking spaces to 200 and pay for improvements on the main access road. That project is expected to be complete this year.

The Park County projects are part of a more than half-billion dollar investment the federal government recently announced in airports across the country.

“This $520.5 million in federal support ... will help to keep our nation’s airports in good shape and make air travel a better experience for passengers,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao said of the Wyoming funding.

Once the taxiway construction is complete at the Powell airport, taxiway A2 — which pilots currently use to taxi onto the runway — will be removed.

City Adminstrator Zack Thorington said the construction start date is uncertain, as the city’s matching funds for the construction were not in this fiscal year’s budget, only the city’s match for the design.

While the city council still needs to approve the funding in the budget for the coming fiscal year, Thorington said it was likely to happen, since construction needs to take place by fiscal year 2021. If not, the city might have to pay back the grant funding for the design.

“There is still a good possibility that it gets built this fiscal year and our schedule will still give us enough time for construction as soon as we know more about our budget finances,” Thorington said.