Fentress runway project nearing end

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - The Fentress Airfield runway project in Chesapeake is nearing completion, which is music to Beach residents living in the Seatack neighborhood.

"Sometimes you can't even hear the TV or if you're outside talking, you can't hear the people talking to you," Virginia Beach resident Leslie Ward said.

All of the noise is a result of touch-and-go landings for carrier practice at Oceana instead of Fentress.

Renovations of the 8,000-foot runway at Fentress are nearing completion less than a year after the project began.

"Fentress reconstruction is on track and on schedule," Capt. Bob Geis with Oceana said. "Everything is going according to the plan, and the plan is for it to be completed by Oct. 15 of this year."

Geis says landings are being limited before 10 p.m. to reduce noise.

The last time any major work was done at Fentress was in 1985 for a long-overdue reconstruction of the landing field.

Geis says Oceana will continue to advertise landing times in newspapers to alert the public.