Officials at Lafayette Regional Airport (LFT) broke ground on a $9.28 million cargo apron expansion project designed to allow the airport to handle the increasing amount of cargo arriving at and departing from Lafayette. "The tremendous growth in cargo operations at the airport has necessitated that we move forward with this project now for safety and economic development reasons," says Lafayette Airport Commission Chairman Paul Segura. "FedEx, UPS and other tenants advised us this project is vital to resolve their current capacity issues and to help plan for the future growth they forecast."

Since 2003, cargo operations at the airport have increased over 400 percent. The significant increase puts the current cargo facility at full capacity, forcing cargo operations to overflow to the General Aviation Apron, thereby raising potential safety issues. To meet the needs of existing tenants and future expansion, the airport commission elected to increase the size of the cargo apron by authorizing the construction of 60,000 square yards of high strength concrete, allowing for the servicing of up to five heavy 757 cargo aircraft simultaneously.

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