Work began Wednesday to repave the runway at the Chilton County Airport.

Chilton County Airport Authority board member Billy Singleton said the project to resurface the runway should be completed by the first week of August.

Singleton said three projects in 2014 including the rehabilitation of the runway, construction of an additional 10-bay hangar unit and clearing of the land west of the airport adjacent to Lay Dam Road included seven Chilton County construction firms who participated in the projects.

“This does not include numerous local businesses that provided these firms with fuel, parts, material and other services,” Singleton said. “In 2014, projects at the airport have injected approximately $1 million into the Chilton County economy, before the first airplane has landed on the newly rehabilitated runway. I think this provides an excellent example of the benefits of local economic development.”

In October 2013, the Chilton County Airport held a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate a $2.6 million investment at the airport.

A grant for roughly $1.6 million was awarded to the airport in September 2013 from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) that would help upgrade the current lighting system at the airport.

The lighting system is expected to save the airport roughly 85 percent in electrical costs due to the more modern system of turning the runway lights off when they are not in use.

With the grant, Chilton County was responsible to pay 5-percent of the grant with the FAA and ALDOT posting 95 percent of the cost for the projects.

The airport was first dedicated on July 3, 1937, making it one of the oldest continuously operating airports in Alabama.

Currently, the runway at the airport is closed while crews continue to work on the projects, but representatives at the airport anticipate work should be completed by this fall.