Northern Colorado Regional Airport has started a construction project to expand the facility’s main north-south runway.
The project began with a full closure Monday and Tuesday. Dylan Swanson, operations and maintenance manager for the airport codenamed FNL and owned by the cities of Loveland and Fort Collins, said the two-phase project will close one end and then the other. The two-day closures are scheduled for the beginning of each phase, June 1-2 and Aug. 25-26, and the end of the second phase, Nov. 7-8.
In a quest to regain scheduled airline service, the airport’s master plan calls for widening its 100-foot-wide main north-south runway to 150 feet to meet Federal Aviation Administration safety standards and accommodate commercial aircraft such as Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s.
The two-phase plan calls for widening the airport’s north-south main runway codenamed “15/33” beginning Monday, with closures of its 4,700-foot north end and then its 2,800-foot south end. While one end is being worked on, the other end will still be available.
But what that means is that while either end is usable by smaller general-aviation aircraft such as Cessnas and Pipers during the construction project, larger corporate jets won’t have enough runway.
“Construction is never easy for tenants on an airport with one runway,” Swanson said Tuesday, “so some have had to relocate. A couple folks went to Greeley, and another one had to go to Chicago.”
Swanson said “I imagine there might be one or two” corporate tenants which don’t return to FNL once the project is complete, “but I think most will be back.”
As part of the “Safety Risk Management” process mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration, a comprehensive evaluation has been completed to assess construction‑related risks, required mitigations and operational impacts for the first and second phase as well as the follow-up phases that include seal-coating, striping, lighting and more.
As part of the mitigation findings, the SRM dictated that only aircraft with wingspans of 79 feet and a 121-knot maximum approach speed could land there for the duration of the shortened‑runway configuration.
It also specified that bimonthly construction coordination meetings would include runway limitations, taxiway changes, training restrictions and phase‑specific reminders. Only takeoffs and landings using “visual flight rules” will be allowed, while “instrument flight rules” operations will be prohibited.
Also, it said, “aircraft must maintain runway heading until fully past the construction area. Early turnouts are prohibited due to proximity to construction personnel and equipment.”
The SRM “is really just memorializing the plan,” Swanson said. “A lot of different specialty groups needed to get their eyes on it.”
The project should last about 186 days, with some elements of the runway paving and grooving going into spring 2027. Some limited runway closures will also occur toward the end of the project, mostly at night for seal-coating, painting and grooving.
In an email to stakeholders in March, Ken Long, spokesman for the pilots’ association at the airport, wrote that the airport’s decision that the “crosswind” runway coded “6/24” would not be closed “was a big win.” Even so, he said, “as previously communicated, we can not use it yet. A group will need to be formed to come up with a plan and strategy for incrementally gaining access to 6/24.”
“We have a great plan in place,” Swanson said. “It’s important for moving into the future.”
