COLUMBIA (AP) - The city of Columbia plans to use a $1.37 million federal grant to improve and extend two runways at the Columbia Regional Airport.
The U.S. Department of Transportation grant was announced last week. City spokesman Steve Sapp says it will pay most of the $4 million cost of enhancing and rebuilding the intersection of the main runway and the crosswind runway, as well as improving a taxiway.
The city's transportation sales tax will fund about 10 percent of the cost.
Sapp says the project is part of a master plan for the airport, which has included construction of a new fence around the airport's perimeter and reconstruction of a taxiway.
Construction on the project should begin soon and be completed sometime next year.