Federal funding questions delay Hanscom taxiway improvements
The $5.5 million project sits mostly within Acton’s share of Hanscom. It includes resurfacing the airport’s existing Taxiway E.
A taxiway project to boost safety at Hanscom Field has been delayed eight months because of a summer finance shuffle.
Amber Goodspeed, Hanscom’s manager of administration, said the project depends on the Federal Aviation Administration. Massport had cash in hand as of last week. That wasn’t the case earlier this summer, and officials punted their start date of August 4 to April 2026.
“There are a lot of questions surrounding federal funding for projects this year,” Goodspeed previously warned the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission.
Although the money did come through, Massport spokesperson Samantha Decker confirmed that officials were initially worried about increased spending scrutiny under President Donald Trump, and she said this uncertainty caused the delay.
The $5.5 million project sits mostly within Acton’s share of Hanscom. It includes resurfacing the airport’s existing Taxiway E.
Crews are also slated to build a new 750-foot taxiway to one of Hanscom’s two runways.
Massport, in a state regulatory filing, said the current setup can cause unnecessary delays if one plane has to wait for takeoff clearance while others have the all-clear. The agency said the setup also raises the risk of “runway incursions” — cases in which pilots enter a runway without approval.
The new Taxiway E5 would let planes bypass each other before entering the western end of runway 11-29.
Officials targeted funding from the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, according to Decker.
Massport received money from the infrastructure law but was still waiting for AIP funds in late July.
An FAA spokesperson didn’t answer questions from The Acton Bridge about whether the AIP is running differently this year.
Massport got its AIP money last week, Decker said.
HFAC panelist Christopher Eliot told The Bridge last week that he’s never heard officials raise runway incursions as a “major fear” at Hanscom. He previously said upgrades are worthwhile to guard against an unlikely accident, but he’s “kind of OK” with the delay because safety concerns don’t seem critical.
Eliot nonetheless criticized Trump’s administration and its cuts government-wide this year.
Once construction starts at Hanscom, it should take 41 calendar days to complete, according to Massport filings.
