The runway of the Ed Carlson Memorial-South Lewis County Airport in Toledo is seen in this image on the WSDOT website.
The Lewis County Board of Commissioners has expressed interest in working with the Washington State Department of Transportation to expand Ed Carlson Memorial Field in Toledo as part of the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission’s effort to explore options for growing airport capacity in the state.
“The airport is a vital asset for Lewis County communities as well as other adjacent counties, especially during times of natural disasters,” the county’s letter to the CACC, dated July 13, reads. “The airport is a primary staging area and aviation access location for the military and emergency response teams for missions related to natural disasters.”
The letter notes the airport’s location near Interstate 5, and the fact that it has several existing hangars and is used regularly by a skydive company.
“A more developed airport that close to I-5 with services and other opportunities could provide significant economic benefits to Lewis County, as well as other neighboring communities, including opportunities for aviation technology-based industries, new family wage jobs and increased tax revenues to support additional community services,” the county’s letter reads.
The commissioners also note the area’s topography and proximity to undeveloped land as selling points.
The CACC received the county’s letter on July 20 and briefly discussed the Toledo airport at its July 22 meeting.
“One of the objectives is possibly to build a large Sea-Tac-sized airport and we equate that to three runways, each being 9,000 feet long, approximately, and that would give us the international and domestic reach that is equivalent to what Sea-Tac is now providing,” said Robert Hodgman, Senior Aviation Planner WSDOT.
That requires about 4,600 total acres, and Hodgman noted that there are few locations with that much open space in the Puget Sound region.
He said the CACC hasn’t identified an undeveloped site that would work, but has taken a look at the Toledo airport.
“There is a substantial amount of undeveloped land around the airport,” he said. “So one of our planners did take a very detailed look at that and templated a few examples of a large, three-runway, 9,000-foot length runway at Toledo and determined that, yes, in fact, with maybe a few minor road revisions that footprint would fit.”
The Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission, organized under the Washington State Department of Transportation, was first convened in October 2019 and tasked by the state Legislature to develop recommendations for a new primary commercial aviation facility in Washington to meet projected growth in air travel demand.
A CACC “Status Report” dated July 2020 notes the commission has three phases. First, it must develop a short list of six airports by January 2021. In phase two it will identify the top two choices by September 2021 and in phase three it will, with a 60 percent majority, pick its top choice by Jan. 1, 2022.
There are opportunities for public input in each phase, said Fleckenstein, director of WSDOT’s Aviation Division.
The commission has explored three different strategies: expanding or improving existing airports, building another Sea-Tac sized airport or both expanding existing airports and building a new one.
That third option has been the most popular among CACC members, Hodgman said.
The Port of Bremerton and the Port of Shelton both expressed interest in continuing to be part of the discussion. The Port of Olympia and Thurston County Board of Commissioners both voted not to be involved.
The CACC had considered a piece of land north of Littlerock in South Thurston County.
Thurston County Commissioner Tye Menser posted on his Facebook page on July 30 that the CACC would not be going forward with that option.
“We received notification from WSDOT that Thurston County, Washington has been removed from the list of potential locations for a new airport based on input from the County Commissioners,” Menser wrote. “I thank the many folks who reached out and shared their thoughts about this topic.”
The full July 22 meeting is available at www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2020071121.
