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Carolina Moving AHEC Planes to Raleigh-Durham Airport

Effective this fall, the UNC Board of Trustees has approved a lease with Raleigh-Durham International Airport that will allow for the $3.5 million construction of a new hangar and office space on about 1.7 acres of land for the University’s Medical Air Operations.

The service, which has been operating from Horace Williams Airport, transports doctors and other health care personnel to 10 offices served by the N.C. Area Health Education Centers Program. The locations include Rocky Mount, Charlotte, Wilmington, Greenville, Greensboro, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, Durham and Raleigh.

A 20-year lease is expected to cost the University about $8,700 per year. Construction is scheduled for completion in fall 2008.

The AHEC program’s mission is to address the health care needs of underserved communities in the state by providing educational programs through partnerships with local academic institutions and health care agencies.

Medical Air is being moved from Horace Williams to RDU in anticipation of the eventual closing of the University’s airport to make way for Carolina North, the planned satellite research campus that could be a mix of academic, research and residential space on the 1,000-acre site. As it stands, the space occupied by Horace Williams Airport is in the way of Carolina North’s first proposed development phase.

Before selecting RDU, University officials looked at nearly two dozen other airport sites in Orange, Chatham and Alamance counties.


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