{"id":127488,"date":"2026-05-04T17:26:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/construction-at-cortez-municipal-airport-will-close-runways-overnight\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T18:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:20:16","slug":"construction-at-cortez-municipal-airport-will-close-runways-overnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/construction-at-cortez-municipal-airport-will-close-runways-overnight\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction at Cortez Municipal Airport will close runways overnight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cortez
Cortez Municipal Airport runways will close overnight then reopen during the day for scheduled flights. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Cortez Municipal Airport begins closing its runways overnight as part of a construction project aiming to improve the safety and longevity of the airfield. Runways will open again in the daytime to accommodate flights.<\/p>\n

The runways will close from 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. every night until May 15 as construction workers groove the surface and repaint the runway and taxiway connectors.<\/p>\n

Crew will be carving narrow channels into the runway to drain water and prevent pooling on the airfield. Pooling water puts planes at risk of hydroplaning during take off and landing. The channels will be trapezoidal \u2013 wider at the top \u2013 as opposed to square to optimize water drainage efficiency.<\/p>\n

The project will also improve the ability of aircraft to brake on wet conditions, reduce rubber buildup on the airfield and minimize surface chipping.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese improvements will significantly enhance safety and reliability for all who rely on Cortez Municipal Airport,\u201d Airport Director Kyle Sloan said in a statement. \u201cOur goal is to ensure the airport continues to serve the region with the highest standards of aviation safety and performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Project will aid water drainage efficiency and improve the durability of airfield<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[916,21,28,60,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-127488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-air-transport","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127491,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127488\/revisions\/127491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127488"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=127488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}