Groton-New London Airport To Receive $3.29 Million

The Federal Aviation Administration has has given Connecticut $3.29 million to make safety improvements to the runway of Groton-New London Airport.

The grant will be combined with $790,000 in state bond money.

“Any time we can enhance safety at our airports, we should do so,” Acting Department of Transportation Commissioner James P. Redeker said in a prepared statement.

He said the money will pay for a system that stops planes at either end of the 5,000-foot main runway, to protect other planes that come down short of the runway or overshoot it during take off.

The system will include a bed of cellular concrete that crushes down when a plane hits it, immediately slowing down the plane and stopping it, the statement said.

Work is expected to begin this summer and be completed in the spring of 2012.