Louisville Regional Airport Authority Wins 2020 Speas Airport Award for Area Safety Program Written 14 February 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Michele McDonald
703.264.7542
[email protected]

February 14, 2020 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) congratulates the Louisville Regional Airport Authority as the 2020 winner of the Jay Hollingsworth Speas Airport Award for their area safety program.

The Louisville Regional Airport Authority (LRAA) won the award “for seeking to maintain operational capabilities while enhancing community relations with neighborhoods and reducing environmental impacts of obstruction mitigation.”

The Jay Hollingsworth Speas Airport Award honors an individual or individuals judged to have contributed most significantly in recent years to the enhancement of relationships between airports and/or heliports and other surrounding environments via exemplary innovation that might be replicated elsewhere. The award is cosponsored by AIAA, the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), and the Airport Consultants Council (ACC).

Brian J. Sinnwell, C.M., Vice President/CPO, Planning & Facilities, Louisville Regional Airport Authority, will accept the award on behalf of the airport during the 2020 ACC/AAAE Airport Planning, Design and Construction Symposium, 19–21 February 2020, at the Atlantis Casino Resort & Spa in Reno, Nevada. The awards luncheon is scheduled for Thursday, 20 February.

In 2012, the LRAA began the Bowman Field Airport Area Safety Program to mitigate tree and other vegetative obstructions with minimal impact to Bowman Field’s neighboring property owners, while maintaining safety for its pilots. Bowman Field was established in 1919 and is one of the longest continuously operating general aviation airports in the United States. It is surrounded by mature residential neighborhoods and two golf courses. The LRAA Board determined that they needed to be proactive with the community and also mitigate the environmental and aesthetic impacts of trimming or removing maturing trees to maintain the airfield operating capabilities. Ignoring the necessary mitigation efforts would ultimately render the airport almost unusable, so LRAA implemented a safety program that included the following:
Trees were assessed by a certified arborist to determine if the tree(s) should be trimmed or removed. At that time, avigation easement offers were made to residents and LRAA acquired 40± avigation easements for this program. As part of the program the residents were offered the following options:

• If a homeowner chose to remove a tree, the homeowner could select up to two low-canopy replacement trees from a booklet compiled by the landscape architect for trees recommended for this climate;
• If a tree was removed, the homeowner was also eligible for a re-landscaping allowance of up to $2,500 over and above the cost of replacement trees. Residents were provided landscape plans, for their approval, after sharing their vision with the landscape architect;
• LRAA paid for the tree trimming and/or removal, stump removal including yard restoration; and
• All new plants carried a one-year warranty and replacement trees carried a two-year warranty. The landscaping contractor is responsible for maintenance.

The FAA guidance for mitigation of trees as obstructions does not call for any replacement of trees. The LRAA Board wanted to provide not only an incentive to permanently remove obstructions, but also to enhance the environment surrounding the airport while offering benefits usually not provided by obstruction mitigation. Focusing on improving the relationship with the community and the environment around Bowman Field has demonstrated LRAA’s commitment to the airport users and neighbors.

For more information on the Jay Hollingsworth Speas Airport Award, please visit aiaa.org/speasaward. For more information on the AIAA Honors and Awards Program, please contact Patricia Carr at 703.264.7523 or [email protected].

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 85 countries, and 95 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
12700 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 200, Reston, VA 20191-5807
Phone: 703.264.7558 Fax: 703.264.7551  aiaa.org