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Runway closed because of mis-scheduled asphalt delays three flights By JOHN DARLING Three United Airlines departures were delayed Tuesday morning when LTM construction crews ran out of asphalt on their nocturnal paving job and couldn't open the runway. LTM was fined $2,000 for working outside their agreed-upon 11 p.m.-to-5 a.m. work window. The flights, to Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco, finally took off a little after 7 a.m., said Kim Stearns, marketing coordinator for Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport. Horizon Air flights and light aviation were able to use the shorter east-west runway, perpendicular to the main one. A late United flight from Seattle, due to arrive at 10:48 p.m. Monday, was unable to land because construction had started for the night, she said. It isn't clear where the plane was diverted and how its passengers reached their destination. The county this summer is repaving the entire main runway to match the runway extension it built last summer. A small section is stripped and repaved each night. The job extends the old 6,700-foot runway to 8,800 feet. Construction will be part of airport life here for years to come. The Federal Aviation Administration during the next two years will build a new, taller control tower northwest of the present one. When that's done, the county will build a new, two-story jet terminal in the present rental car area, demolish the present, half-century-old terminal and build a new single-story terminal for turboprop airlines on its site. On the net: www.jacksoncounty.org (click "airport" to see master plan) John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.