Work is set to begin sometime after the New Year on a major overhaul of the runway configuration at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport. The project calls for 300 feet of runway on the airport’s main airstrip to be dug up and removed and then rebuilt on the eastern side of the runway in Edgartown.

The project will cost approximately $6.5 million and will be paid for through a combination of federal, state and local money. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will pay for over 90 per cent of the total cost, with the airport paying approximately $165,000.

The airport straddles West Tisbury and Edgartown. The changes to the runway will not alter flight patterns or approach vectors.

Airport manager Sean Flynn said last week the new runway layout is not meant to accommodate increased air traffic.

“We are not doing this to allow more planes [to come through the airport]; I hope everyone understands that. This is being done for safety reasons, and safety reasons only,” he said.

Mr. Flynn said the changes are required by the FAA. Shifting the runway will create expanded safety areas at both ends of the runway that can be used for emergency landings. The FAA requires the airport to have safety areas on each side of the runway that are 500 feet wide and 1,000 feet long.

At a public information session on the project hosted by the airport commission last week, engineer Jean E. Mongillo said the changes to the runway would bring the West Tisbury side of the runway within 99 per cent compliance of federal regulations.

“That’s as close as we’re going to get without relocating Edgartown-West Tisbury Road,” she said.

Erin Gillen, an ecologist with Baystate Environmental Consultants, said the changes will have a minimal environmental impact and have already been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. She said there are some rare sandplain grassland plants and species of rare beetles living at the airport, but the shift in runway will actually result in a net increase of the natural habitat for the species.

The types of grasslands that could potentially be affected are purple needle grass, sandplain blue-eyed grass and sandplain flax. There is also one breed of rare bird that could be affected, the grasshopper sparrow.

Ms. Gillen said work on the runway will be scheduled around the bird’s breeding season.

Mr. Flynn said the work on the runway is covered by a permit the airport already holds. He said the airport has until 2012 to build the safety areas. The project will be broken down into three phases with most construction occurring in the off-season, he said.

He estimated the new runway configuration will be completed by the fall of 2010.