Oceanside has been allocated an FAA grant of almost $2 million to replace runway lights, install underground conduit and erect a prefabricated building to house the related electrical equipment at its municipal airport.
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The work includes replacing the runway edge lights with LED fixtures and replacing the buried cables with new conduit and connections, states a report to the Oceanside City Council.
“In addition, a new pre-fabricated vault building will be placed next to the terminal building to house and protect the new constant current regulators that will power the new runway lights,” the report states. “New Runway End Identifier Lights (REILs) will be installed at the runway ends to help pilots locate the ends of the runway at night or in low visibility conditions.”
The Federal Aviation Administration’s grant of $1,938,011 requires the city to contribute about $108,000 as matching funds. The city’s share will come from its general capital projects fund.
The City Council voted unanimously last week to accept the FAA grant. The item was one of about 20 items approved together in a single vote as part of the meeting’s consent calendar.
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The general aviation airport is in the San Luis Rey River valley along state Route 76 near the city’s border with Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. Built in the 1960s, the 43-acre facility has a single, 2,712-foot-long runway that accommodates mostly single-engine planes.
It was renamed Bob Maxwell Memorial Field in 2013 in honor of a late Oceanside resident who served with the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II.
The airport has about 35 hangars, 70 aircraft and a few small businesses, including a skydiving operation. It also offers aerial tours aboard helicopters or vintage biplanes, and is home to the region’s emergency helicopter rescue service. There is no air-traffic control tower.
The airport is operated by Airport Property Ventures, a private Glendale-based company that signed a 50-year lease with the city in 2009.
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