PENN TWP — The $22 million, 700-foot runway extension at Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport is scheduled to begin construction by 2024.

Ike Kelly, airport manager, said on Tuesday that a required environmental assessment and cost/benefit study are currently under way on the project, which was announced a year ago.

The environmental study, which Kelly said should be completed by May or June, determines such factors as the amount of vehicle traffic at the airport and the extension's impact on local roads, wetlands and flora and fauna.

“It determines what, if any, impact an extension would have,” Kelly said.

The cost/benefit analysis determines the benefits versus the total cost of the extension.

“The prime goal is a dollar of benefit for every dollar invested,” Kelly said.

He said the environmental study and the cost/benefit analysis will be submitted to the state Department of Transportation's Bureau of Aviation for approval.

If both are approved, the project would move on to selecting an engineer to design the runway, Kelly said.

He said that while the plan will not go before the township supervisors for approval for some time, he attends township meetings periodically to keep the supervisors abreast of the project's progress.

He said copies of both the environmental assessment and cost/benefit analysis will be provided to the supervisors once they are completed.

The supervisors' main decision regarding the expansion, Kelly said, will be approving any alterations to Monroe Road, which is adjacent to the airport.

Kelly said last year that anything up to and including a tunnel could be the answer to the extension's potential impact on Monroe Road.

The $22 million for the extension, should it be approved, will be funded through a block grant that the Federal Aviation Administration distributes to PennDOT's Bureau of Aviation.

That grant will pay 90 percent of the $22 million. PennDOT would then pay 5 percent, while the airport would contribute 5 percent.

“It's like buying a dollar bill for 5 cents,” Kelly said.

He stressed that the airport's board of directors has a four-, 12- and 20-year plan, all of which are updated each year, so the runway expansion wasn't a quick decision.

“These aren't projects where we all say, 'Gee, let's build a runway,'” Kelly said.

He said the $22 million estimate could change as well depending on the cost of asphalt and other factors when the time comes for construction.

Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, Kelly said, is the fifth to seventh largest general aviation airport — which means that no commercial airliners use the airport — in the state.

The general aviation airports in Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County and State College in Centre County are among the largest.

The runway expansion would allow pilots using the airport to carry more fuel.