(INDIANAPOLIS) – The Indianapolis airport is getting $9.7 million in federal money to keep the planes flying even when the weather turns bad.
A quarter of the airport’s fleet of 43 snowplows are what executive director Mario Rodriguez calls the Ferrari of snowplows: they plow, sweep and de-ice all at once, in a fraction of the time. The only problem is, there isn’t a suitable building to keep them in. The equipment is so big that it’s hard to maneuver them in and out of the existing buildings.
Rodriguez says a new federally funded building for the plows will be closer to the runways and allow crews to clear them even faster. It should open next October.
The airport hasn’t had to close due to weather since the Blizzard of ’78.
Rodriguez says the airport has captured $83.7 million in federal funding over the last five years.
(Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
