Small Airports Could Soon Use State Highway Specs for Runways Under New Bill

The Airport Regulatory Relief Act of 2025 is aiming to streamline infrastructure projects at smaller airports by changing who sets the rules for pavement. Specifically, Section 2 of this bill amends federal law to allow nonprimary airports—the ones that mostly serve aircraft weighing 60,000 pounds or less—to use their state’s standard highway specifications for runway and apron construction, replacing the typically more complex federal airport standards. This change applies only when using specific federal funding streams (49 U.S.C. 47114(d) or 47114(c)(1)(D)) and is contingent on two things: the state must notify the Secretary of Transportation that they plan to use these highway specs, and the Secretary must determine that doing so “will not negatively affect safety.”

The Pothole Problem: State Specs vs. Federal Rules

Think about the difference between building a local road and building a highway—there are different standards for materials, drainage, and load bearing. Federal airport pavement standards are designed for the unique stresses of aircraft landing and taxiing, which are different from car traffic. This bill’s main goal is efficiency: smaller airports often find it faster and cheaper to use the pavement standards their State DOT already uses for highways. For a small, regional airport manager trying to get a repair done quickly and cheaply, this could be a big win, potentially cutting down on the specialized engineering needed to meet federal aviation specs.

Who’s Flying the Safety Check?

While the bill promises potential cost savings and faster construction, the safety caveat is the critical detail. The Secretary of Transportation has to sign off that using state highway specs “will not negatively affect safety.” This introduces a significant, yet subjective, safety determination. Since the bill doesn't specify how the Secretary makes this call—what metrics they use, or what the threshold for “negative effect” is—it puts a lot of administrative pressure on federal safety regulators. They now have to review potentially dozens of different state highway standards (which vary widely) against aviation safety needs, a task previously handled by standardized federal airport specifications.

Real-World Landing Zone

For the traveling public, especially those relying on small, regional airports for connecting flights or essential services, this change is a mixed bag. On one hand, faster, cheaper infrastructure projects mean less downtime and potentially better facilities sooner. On the other hand, if a state’s highway specs aren't quite robust enough for the repeated stress of aircraft operations, the long-term integrity of that pavement could suffer. While the 60,000-pound weight limit keeps the heaviest commercial jets off these runways, even smaller turboprops and regional jets require highly durable surfaces. If the safety review is rushed or politically influenced, we could see more frequent maintenance issues down the line, affecting reliability. This bill essentially trades standardized, high-assurance federal rules for a more flexible, but judgment-heavy, state-by-state approach to infrastructure safety.