Nearly 20 years ago, planning started for extending the runways and footprint of T.F. Green Airport. And now the project, much scaled back from the original concept, is done. Was it worth it?
So far, anyway, the answer is a qualified yes.
There is no doubt that the addition of trans-Atlantic flights in the last few years has added passenger traffic at Green, and between more destinations in Europe and expected service expansion to the U.S. West Coast, even more people will be using the Warwick facility for both pleasure and business.
But the $250 million in upgrades at T.F. Green (which have gone well beyond extending the main runway to include other safety and environmental health improvements) have not had the time needed to deliver the full benefits to the state’s economy just yet.
R.I. Airport Corp. CEO and President Iftikhar Ahmad, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian and the state expect cargo and logistics operations to grow at Green, with the coming arrival of Pinnacle Logistics – and its 300 full- and part-time jobs – to both the airport and the Quonset Business Park only the beginning.
Strategic investments in infrastructure can make a large difference in the state’s economic success. It is too early to know what the return of that $250 million investment will be (half of which came from the federal government), but in a state with a GDP of roughly $57 billion, it won’t take much of a return on investment to see the benefits. The question is, how many more worthy infrastructure investments are there out there to be made?
