Delaware county approves eco-study on DC-area air cargo ramp

A PROJECTED Delaware county Air Cargo Ramp (ACR), formerly the Civil Air Terminal, has been given the go-ahead for an environmental study by Kent County commissioners at a cost of US$30,600 to be completed within 14 months.

The project has experienced progress in the last two years following more than two decades of inertia and now has a co-development team and a facility name change to Air Cargo Terminal, reports Delaware's Newszap.com.

The Delaware county of Kent, in easy trucking distance of Washington and Philadelphia, owns 13.2 acres of land north of the DelDOT property, which includes the Dover Air Force Base runway, and has agreed to work together with the state's economic development office towards an environmental study.

To move forward the ACR project it has awarded Maryland-based Century Engineering based in Dover to cost a total of $571,800 to be split three ways with the county, DelDOT and Delaware Economic Development Office.

Kent County commissioners of the Levy Court has funded the study as part of its $600,000 estimated cost from its Strategic Development Fund appropriated in June 2012, which includes an archaeological work on the land. This is to determine if there is any evidence or finds of a farm built in the 1700s at the site.

It is hoped that following the study environmental permitting, wetlands mitigation site design and engineering, and storm water management design and engineering will be done.