Waukesha County Airport's $24M Runway Project Concludes; Stakeholders Puzzled By Lack Of Disruption

WAUKESHA — Runway 10/28 at Waukesha County Airport reopened at 6 a.m. today after a two-month closure for a $24 million safety-improvement project, concluding a construction effort that airport officials say generated remarkably little for anyone to notice.

The project, which repaved 5,800 feet of runway surface and upgraded approach lighting on both ends, was scheduled a year in advance and publicized through the airport's newsletter, its website, and a mailer sent to 340 households within a mile of the property. Airport director Craig Deneen said the agency prepared no traffic or operations contingency plan for the closure "because there wasn't really anything to contend with."

"We had a whole binder ready," Deneen said, holding up a three-ring binder labeled RUNWAY 10/28 CLOSURE CONTINGENCY that he acknowledged was never opened. "Reroute procedures, a diversion map, talking points for concerned pilots. We just never got a call that required any of it."

The FBO Perspective

At the airport's fixed-base operator, attendant Marlene Rasch, 34, said the two-month stretch passed with little to distinguish one day from the next. "I got used to not seeing planes for two months," Rasch said. "Honestly, I'm not sure if they're back yet. I've been inside doing the fuel logs all morning."

Rasch estimated she fielded 3 phone calls total during the closure asking about runway status, 2 of which were the same person calling twice. She said the airport's Cessna traffic, typically 14 to 18 movements on a weekday, dropped to what she described as "basically the same, honestly, maybe 11."

"I got used to not seeing planes for two months. Honestly, I'm not sure if they're back yet."

— Marlene Rasch, FBO attendant

The Charter Reroute Nobody Noticed

Lakeland Air Charter, one of two charter operators based at the field, rerouted its clients to Capital Airport in Madison for the duration of the closure, a 32-mile detour each way. Owner Rick Fennimore said the switch went entirely unremarked upon by the traveling public.

"We moved 6 clients over two months," Fennimore said. "Normally we'd move maybe 7. Nobody said a word about the extra drive. One guy asked if the coffee in the new lounge was better. It was not."

Fennimore added that he kept a laminated card in the cockpit listing emergency diversion airports in case Capital Airport became unavailable, a scenario that did not arise. "You plan for the worst," he said. "The worst, in this case, was a slightly longer drive to Madison that one time in June when it rained."

The $24 Million

The project's cost, funded primarily through a Federal Aviation Administration grant with a local match from Waukesha County, covered full-depth reclamation of the runway surface, new LED approach lighting, and drainage work the airport says will prevent the kind of standing water that closed a taxiway for 4 days in spring 2024. County officials called the investment necessary regardless of how quietly it concluded.

"Safety infrastructure doesn't need an audience," said county public works liaison Denise Okafor. "The runway needed the work. The fact that almost nobody experienced any inconvenience is, if anything, a sign the planning worked."

Deneen said the airport would retain the unopened contingency binder in a filing cabinet "in case the next one's louder," while noting he had no specific reason to expect that it would be.