In a 4-1 vote, the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners voted to amend the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport planning document, shifting the runway 80 feet west instead of moving the taxiway 80 feet east. The change.
Brad Jacobsen, an outside consultant to Pitkin County, claims that the runway shift is the only divergence from the Common Ground Recommendations. In fact, the new plan also flunks the community’s specific goals for airliners’.
In an effort to beat the clock on a failing runway and soon-to-expire Congressional funding for the airport, the county endorsed shifting the runway 80 feet west instead of the taxiway 80 feet east in a major planning document.
Feedback from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and contacts in Washington have forced Pitkin County and the Aspen/Pitkin County airport to reconsider a major component of airport design plans: moving the runway, not the taxiway..