The groundwork is being laid for safer flying and incoming F-35A’s at Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport.
Westfield has long been a hub for air activity — with an airfield built in 1923 going on to become what’s known as Westfield-Barnes.
On top of civilian use, it’s also home to the 104th Fighter Wing, a Massachusetts Air National Guard unit. Both sectors stand to benefit when an overhaul of a taxiway is completed later this year.
Work on Taxiway B South was underway Monday as military commanders, elected officials and the FAA took part in a groundbreaking ceremony for the work.
The airport’s still in use as the $32 million project continues, with plans to finish in the fall.
According to state Department of Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt, it’s the largest single investment in infrastructure the airport has seen in its 100-year history.
“We expect this project to be completed by the end of the year, and, when done, will see the realigning and widening of two different taxiways and the reconstruction and expansion of the South Arm Apron,” the official said, noting the airport’s Taxiway E is also slated to be improved during the work.
The work also helps pave the way for new F-35A’s that were awarded to the 104th last year.
They’re expected to start arriving around 2026, replacing 18 F-15 aircraft that have reached the end of their service life.
“This is also key for F-35 operations, because the prior taxiway was too narrow for F-35 operations and the arming area in the south end was too small for it to accommodate all the aircraft that we would be operating,” said Wing Commander and Colonel David Halasi-Kun. “So, opening up this taxiway, expanding the arming area in the in the south end of the airfield has now made us a prime, best-suited location for the F-35.”
Halasi-Kun told WAMC that the taxiway work has been a topic of conversation since he arrived in 2007.
He says that over the last eight years, a concerted push by state and federal officials got the project off the ground.
The benefits go beyond the local fighter wing as well.
Tibbetts-Nutt called the airport an economic engine for western Massachusetts, involving some 2,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Both the transportation secretary and Rep. Neal noted the airport has an annual economic output of over $200 million dollars.
It also provides educational opportunities, like with the Westfield Technical Academy’s Aviation Maintenance Technology program.
“This upgrade, in terms of infrastructure, will enhance both,” Neal said, referring to both the commercial and military capabilities for the airfield. “I think the story here is Westfield Academy, I think it's the big employers that are nearby, and it's the more than $235 million that, annually, this base represents in terms of economic activity.”
According to Chris Willenborg, the airport manager at Westfield-Barnes, the new taxiway will also address a hotspot designated by the FAA — a location on an airport's movement area that poses a potential risk of collision or runway incursion.
Willenborg says the airport, off Route 202 and near the Mass Pike, sees 54,000 flight operations annually.
