Oct 28, 2014 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – A $1.3 million grant Greene County received Tuesday through the state’s Multimodal Transportation Fund should go a long way toward covering the costs of constructing a new entrance and access road at the Greene County Airport.

“This is a really good thing,” Jeffrey Marshall, Greene County chief clerk, said regarding the grant award. The grant will provide a “major chunk” of the money the county needs to construct the new entrance as well as a new access road within the airport property, he said.

The county has been working to develop property at the airport that fronts Route 21 for commercial development.

The plans include developing a new entrance from Route 21 at Murtha Drive, creating a new four-way intersection at Murtha Drive and Route 21.

It also includes building a new access road inside the airport property that will run roughly parallel to Route 21 and provide access to the three, two-acre parcels being prepared for commercial development to the west of the entrance and to the administration building and a new parking lot to the east of the entrance.

To design and construct the entrance and access road, the county needed about $2 million, Marshall said.

A $500,000 grant the county received last month from the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority and the $1.3 million grant announced Tuesday should pretty much cover those costs, he said.

The airport project also had involved the demolition of the four airplane hangars west of the administrative building to create the parcels that will be open for commercial development and the construction of a 20,280-square-foot, T-hangar east of the administration building.

The Multimodal Transportation Fund was created by Act 89, the state transportation bill signed into law last November that provided additional funding for state transportation projects primarily through the removal of the cap on the Oil Company Franchise Tax.

The act established a dedicated multimodal fund for aviation, passenger rail, rail freight, port and bicycle-pedestrian projects. The project funding comes from three state fiscal years of Act 89 investments, said the state Department of Transportation, which announced the funding.

PennDOT had evaluated the applications and made selections based on such criteria as safety benefits, regional economic conditions, the technical and financial feasibility, job creation, energy efficiency and operational sustainability, the department said.