UC Airport Receives Centerline Lighting Grant

The Upper Cumberland Regional Airport has received a state grant to pay for new lights to be installed down the center of the airport’s taxiway.

Airport Director Dean Selby said the new lights will be solar-powered and are meant to improve situational awareness on the runway. Selby said planes tend to have low-quality taxi lights so having the centerline lit up will be very helpful for pilots.

“So they’re very similar to the centerline reflectors on the highway in the respect of that everyone’s used to except they just glue to the surface right in the middle of the runway, I mean the taxiway,” Selby said. “It’s just a simple glue-down pad that we can do while we’re open without causing any impact on operations.”

Selby said they are now ready to order the lights which will be installed one section at a time by the airport’s maintenance personnel. Selby said they hope to have the equipment installed by this winter.

Selby said they requested the grant because they lost visibility along the center lane when they converted their taxiway to have LED edge lighting.

“What ended up happening was you lost visibility on the centerline because they’re a little bit better quality light so there’s not as much light pollution,” Selby said.

Selby said it has taken them several months of work to apply for the grant and get to this point where they can order the equipment and prepare for installation.

“This is part of a test,” Selby said. “They’re trying this particular solar light so as part of this test they agree to pay for it one hundred percent with state funding.”