A Delta plane taxis on the runway at McCarran International Airport on October 10, 2014.
Friday, July 17, 2015 | 10:36 a.m.
McCarran International Airport is getting a $16.3 million grant from the federal Department of Transportation to continue a runway resurfacing project.
The money will be used to help pay to replace asphalt with more durable concrete on the 14,500-foot Runway 7L/25R, which handles about a third of the Las Vegas airport’s traffic.
“The airport is the lifeblood of Southern Nevada’s economy,” U.S. Sen. Harry Reid said in a statement. “Maintaining our status as the world’s premier tourist destination is contingent on having a world-class airport.”
The runway was closed from late October 2014 to April 22 for the first phase of the $67 million project. The second phase, which will focus on resurfacing the western section of the runway, is slated to being in October and will take about six months to complete, officials said.
Reid has been a champion of the airport, inserting a provision into a 2009 federal stimulus bill to fund the construction of McCarran’s Terminal 3.
He also directed a congressional earmark to pay half the construction costs of a $99 million control tower that has yet to open.
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