University Park Airport soon will be revamped due to a $720,000 state grant last week.

Airport manager Bob Dannaker said airport officials submitted an application to fund the demolition of 10 outdated hangars and the construction of 50 new T-hangars.

T-hangars are made of five large buildings with 10 hangars in each. The hangars being demolished are 40 years old, Dannaker said.

After renovations, the airport will have 70 hangars -- 50 of which will be new.

Assistant Manager Bryan Rodgers said that the airport hopes to start construction sometime this year, but there is no timeframe on demolition of the old hangars. The construction itself won't have any impact on operations as far as delays or fewer flights, he added.

The airport requested the funds late last summer and was awarded by the state last week, Dannaker said.

"This money is half of what we expect the project will cost," he said. "We will provide equal funding for the construction."

The University Park Airport is among nine airports across the state that received a combined $4.9 million for various projects.

The grants came from the last capital budget, said Larry Krauter, director of planning and engineering for Lehigh Valley International Airport, which also received state money.

"The amounts in the budget for aviation are very limited," Krauter said. "There's only $5 million for all 142 airports in the state."

He added that roughly $40 million worth of airport projects go without funds in a given year.

Receiving money to build new and better hangars is a key part of airport improvement, Krauter said.

"Hangars provide a lot of economic development power in terms of return on dollars spent," he said.

The capital budget with the grants came during former Gov. Mark Schweiker's administration, said Tom Hickey, spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell. Rendell is just as concerned with the upkeep of the state's airports, he added.

University Park Airport also receives funding regularly from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for ongoing projects, Dannaker said. He said 90 percent of funding for regular projects comes from the FAA, 5 percent comes from the state and 5 percent comes from local sources.

Arlene Salac, FAA's eastern region spokeswoman, said it's important for both the FAA and the states to provide funding for airports.

"We work hand-in-hand with the state in many efforts to improve aviation across the state of Pennsylvania," she said. "Keeping aviation current and safe is a partnership between states and the federal government."

Salac said the FAA gave University Park Airport $1.5 million last year in entitlements, which are funds appropriated based upon the number of passenger that use the airport. Those funds were used to expand and rehabilitate the terminal apron and build a de-icing containment facility, Dannaker added.

This hangar project, however, is a special case, so the airport requested additional money from the state, he said.