Graves Divert Airport Expansion

0

While it’s doubtful any airplane is loud enough to wake the dead, Craven County Airport Authority, near New Bern, N.C., isn’t taking any chances. The county is giving back $204,000 in federal funding after Civil War-era graves were found near the proposed site of new hangars and right where the new taxiway was supposed to go. The army leveled the cemetery during the Second World War to build an airstrip and the dearly departed from historic days gone by were all but forgotten. But they came to light in a 1970s battle against a runway extension and, to date, 522 graves have been identified on the airport land, not including the unknown number found recently. The new (old) graves were found by an archeologist and their discovery means the airport expansion plan is being scaled back. The county had hoped to add 10 hangars and the taxiway but the taxiway will be cancelled and only five hangars can be built.

LEAVE A REPLY