Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport receives competitive $5 million national grant

KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) - The Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport will be adding some energy-efficient improvements using the $5 million grant the airport received from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Airport Terminal Program.

The grant will allow funding to install LED lights throughout the entire airport campus. Mike Wilson, who is the Killeen Executive Director of Aviation, said LED lights will use less electricity than the initial ones installed in 2004.

The airport will also be able to add covered parking for the car rental lot and part of the short-term parking lot as well as a covered walkway from the terminal to the car rental lot.

Solar panels will also be installed on top of covered parking areas utilizing the funding from the grant. Wilson said the panels will generate electricity for the airport.

“This would decrease our energy consumption, obviously, decrease our energy bill, and also provide a customer upgrade for customers,” Wilson said.

Wilson said Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport is only one of 99 airports nationwide to receive this type of grant. He said the law awarded $25 billion to airports nationwide, and $5 million was dedicated to airport projects that boost sustainability, energy efficiency or modernization.

“This particular part of the grant was a competitive grant that airports all over the country had to compete for, and I believe there were 104 projects awarded at 99 airports for a total of just under a billion dollars,” Wilson said. “We were one of them.”

He said the airport applied for the grant last year but was not awarded the funding; however, he said he is now excited to receive funding to make improvements for the airport and its passengers.

“It allows us to be more sustainable by using solar, but it also provides a customer enhancement experience,” Wilson said. “Anytime you can enhance the customer experience, I think that plays a part in hopefully drawing more folks to the airport.”

He said residents and passengers will probably start seeing some changes in the next eight to 12 months.

Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal to improve the nation’s infrastructure in 2021. The deal also included plans to improve the nation’s transportation systems.

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