BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Bay Minette Aviation plans a September start date to build a parallel taxi way that would deter slow-moving traffic from the existing runway.

According to Bay Minette Airport Authority Chairman Pat Ryan, the current 5,500-foot-by-80-foot runway would get some relief when the parallel taxi way is built beside it. This would allow air traffic to taxi on another route and free the runway for planes to take off and land.

“It’s something that all larger airports have,” Ryan said in an interview.

According to Bay Minette Municipal Airport Manager George Sigler, that’s not the only reason for building the structure. Instead, the $2 million project should actually benefit the airport.

“It’s a real safety measure,” he said in an interview.

Sigler pointed out that the current taxiway has the potential to cause air traffic problems.

“If a plane is slowly taxiing, another plane can’t land,” he said, explaining that the new taxiway should solve that problem. “It will expedite traffic. (Construction will) fill in gaps beside the runway and move dirt. It will take a good portion of the hill down with tractors and put in fill for the taxi way, then asphalt it like a road.”

As previously reported, the project will be funded by a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as the Alabama Department of Transportation and the city of Bay Minette.

Phase one of the construction, the main stretch of taxiway that is planned to be located north of the runway and run east from the fixed-base operator lobby area, should be constructed from September to February, Ryan explained. He hopes that next year construction will begin on phase two, which includes plans to construct the taxiway north of the runway and west from the fixed-base operator. Phase three is projected to “cut the taxiway for drainage” in front of the east-apron maintenance hanger, he explained. Then phase four is expected to interrupt functions at the fixed-base operator to run electrical lines in front of it.

According to Ryan, construction should slightly hinder normal operations, but the four phases of planned construction have been carefully designed to decrease those interruptions.

The airport currently operates so that planes land, turn around on one of two circular areas located at the east and west ends of the runway, then taxi back down the runway to the lobby or fuel station. The division of phase one and phase two is expected to allow air traffic to use the west circle while the east end is closed and vice versa, Ryan said.

According to Sigler, the airport currently receives approximately 300 operations per day, which he defined as one take off and one landing.

“It’s not major in the size or the length of runway,” he said. “But it’s the fourth or fifth busiest in Alabama, and it’s extremely busy for an airport with one runway.”

Ryan pointed out that the airport’s traffic includes many military planes and that the facility also features a flight-training school.

“It’s a federal airport,” he said. “So anyone can land there.”

According to Ryan, aircrafts often stop at the Bay Minette Municipal Airport for fuel, as it is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Though the site is manned 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends, the fuel area has a credit-card reader and offers general-aviation 100-octane fuel.

While these operations explain the airport’s current day-to-day activities, Ryan said that the addition would better serve customers and may attract business to Bay Minette and the surrounding area.

“Any major industry would need an airport during construction and once it’s up and running,” he said.

Ryan noted that the airport could encourage businesses to locate at the city’s newly-approved megasite located in between U.S. Interstate 65 and the proposed extension of the Foley Beach Express. Airports are especially useful to large industries such as car companies, he explained, and it could give Bay Minette a needed edge over competing areas.

The airport is located 3 miles southwest of Bay Minette at 11981 Airport Road and was activated in October of 1962, according to the Air Nav website.

According to Ryan, Jimmy Faulkner Sr., a World War II veteran and community leader, was instrumental in the initial construction of the airport,  which has undergone two expansion over the past 26 years.

“It’s not something you can just build and forget about,” he said. “You have to maintain it.”