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Fulton County
Shopping Guide News Wednesday, July 8, 2026
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Runways redone at Fulton County Airport By LEAH SANDER Staff Writer
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The Fulton County Airport’s two runways recently were spruced up. The airport reopened on June 26 after being closed for a month for Phend & Brown, owned by Rieth-Riley Construction Co., to complete the work. Fulton County Airport Manager Matt Woods said Phend & Brown completed drainage work to help “catch the water as it runs off the surface of the runways and take it farther away from the asphalt to help with the longevity of the asphalt surface.” The contractor also completed 20,000 feet of minor crack repair and 7,400 feet of full-depth crack repair and milled and paved the runways. Woods said workers would return at the end of July after the asphalt has set a month to put in grooves to “shed water to prevent hydroplaning.” The airport will be closed for three consecutive nights for that work, with two consecutive day closures afterward for The Airmarking Co. to stripe the runways. Woods said the runways hadn’t been redone for 21 years, which is about standard to the Federal Aviation Administration’s repair estimates. During the project, the airport became the first in Indiana and
WORK — Workers with Phend & Brown, owned by Rieth-Riley Construction Co., are shown redoing the Fulton County Airport’s runways. Photo provided by Steve Rude. 26th in the country to have a Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR, scan done, said Woods. He said the manufacturer happened to be demonstrating the technology to Phend & Brown. “They have a piece of equipment that’s set up that goes down the length of the runway and shoots a bunch of lasers out, and it builds a profile within the software program of what that surface looks like and all the changes in grade, elevation and anything like that,” said Woods. “It’s recording all of that information, so that it can make a 3D model of the surface and how it looks ... So if it has any areas that roll and any areas that rise or lower elevation, it’s seeing all that and creating this profile of what it looks like.” Woods said that information is then incorporated into the milling machine’s software to help with the work. The project was paid for with federal and state grant money, with $75,000 coming from the air-
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port’s budgeted funds. Woods said the project was “a continued investment, not only locally but federally and through the state in our airport, keeping our airport up to good operating conditions.” “We had some really big cracks (in the asphalt),” added Fulton County Airport Authority Board Treasurer Steve Rude. He said the Fulton County Airport is like “Fulton County’s front door.” “So we want it to be neat and clean and inviting,” said Rude. In 2025, the airport handled 7,531 aircraft operations. Parkview Health houses one of its Samaritan helicopters at the airport. More crop dusting companies have used the airport recently, said Rude. He said the Indiana National Guard has completed some training sessions at the airport. “They even gave us an award for how accommodating we were,” said Rude.
REDONE — A view of the Fulton County Airport’s runways after they were recently redone. Photo provided by Matt Woods.
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