By BEN BOTKIN/Lookout Eugene-Springfield
EUGENE — Eugene Airport officials are delaying plans to move forward with two improvement projects, including a multimillion concourse expansion, amid legal questions after the Trump administration has tried to tie compliance with federal immigration law to the federal grants that pay for the work.
Eugene Airport and other airports across the nation are grappling with how to respond to a federal memo U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent April 24 to grant recipients. The memo told the airport officials that they are legally obligated to cooperate with federal authorities, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials enforcing immigration laws. Those transportation grants include Federal Aviation Administration awards to airports, including the Eugene Airport.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield joined 19 other states in filing a lawsuit May 13 challenging the directive, which includes airport grants as well as other types of transportation funding, such as for highways and roads. The lawsuit against the administration calls the immigration enforcement condition unlawful and not a requirement for the funding, which localities have long relied upon.
“These funds develop and sustain the highways that carry Plaintiff States’ residents to and from home; the airports that enable them to cross the country and the globe; the safety measures that protect drivers from fatal accidents; the signals and barriers that prevent train collisions; and the firefighters that inspect and ensure safe pipelines that cross millions of miles throughout Plaintiff States,” the lawsuit says.
Eugene Airport officials, meanwhile, are holding off on starting the projects that rely upon that federal funding. In 2023, 1.7 million passengers used the airport and 1 million pounds of air cargo moved through the facility, according to a 2024 city economic report.
The largest project on hold is a $5 million grant that would help an expansion in Concourse A. That money would pay for new seating to reduce congestion, renovation of restrooms, lighting and other upgrades and the addition of a new all-user restroom on the second floor.
The concourse project’s funding also is reliant on bond funding and airport officials were concerned about how the bond market would look at the situation, airport officials said. For now, the bond process is also “essentially on hold until we can answer some more of these questions,” airport director Cathryn Stephens said in a statement at an airport advisory committee meeting in May.
The concourse hold rooms currently have 7,756 square feet and the expansion project’s total cost is estimated at nearly $21.5 million in September 2024, city records show.
The other project on hold is a $400,000 grant to develop a sustainable management and net zero energy plan, with the goal of reducing emissions and becoming more climate-friendly.
“The city of Eugene has long participated in federal programs that provide federal funding for local initiatives, including development of the Eugene Airport,” Stephens said at the meeting. “However, the city of Eugene’s ability to access those federal funds has been put at risk by recent changes to those federal programs. Airports across the country are also experiencing similar issues.”
Stephens said the city is looking at options, but didn’t elaborate at the meeting, noting that the city attorney’s office has been in touch with other airports across the state.
Two other projects will continue with other airport funding instead of federal dollars — a $7 million grant-funded improvement project on the asphalt apron and a $1.5 million drainage project. The asphalt work is slated to start in mid-June, and the drainage project is scheduled to start in mid-September, Martz said.
— Lookout Eugene-Springfield is an online news site covering Lane County.
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