Sand Springs, Tulsa Riverside Airport Closed To Traffic For Renovations

A popular airport for flight training will be off-limits to pilots this month.

Pogue Airport in Sand Springs has some long-overdue improvements, which means the runway will be closed for several weeks.

It's not the only airport in the area getting work done, either.

On a normal day, the runway at Pogue Airport is busy with planes touching down and taking off, but now the runway is being used by construction crews, closed off to air traffic.

Airport Supervisor Ken Madison says work is underway to replace runway lights that guide pilots to safety, a project that's been planned for years.

"It will improve our operations for nighttime operations but also on days like today if the clouds start coming down the lighting will be brighter," Madison said.

The new LED lights and other maintenance work will cost a little over $1 million, 93 percent of it funded through the FAA and Oklahoma Department of Aerospace grants.

Pogue isn't the only airport in the area getting work done, there's also construction happening at Tulsa Riverside Airport, causing some flight instructors to find other airports to teach their students.

"It's an extremely busy airport, it's the busiest airport in the state by far," said flight instructor David Koehn.

Koehn says Pogue is usually a great option for teaching his students because it gets them away from the busy airspace at Riverside.

"It's not as busy as Riverside and right now Riverside is down to one runway, but even if we were at two runways we'd still go to Pogue a lot because it's close and not as busy," he said.

Despite the inconvenience, Koehn says there are other airports nearby to teach his students.

"We'll go to Muskogee, Okmulgee a lot of people go to Okmulgee because it's not very far, and then Cushing, maybe Bartlesville."

Koehn is glad the headache of construction won't last long, both the main runway at Riverside and Pogue are expected to be back open by May.