The activation of a new aviation navigation beacon that will free up acreage at the Little Rock Port is "still on track" to happen Oct. 1, the Port Authority's executive director told board members during a meeting Wednesday.
On Monday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration will arrive in Little Rock and start installing the equipment at the new beacon, Executive Director Bryan Day said.
Once it is turned on, roughly 1,000 acres will become available "to attract some huge mega-project," Day said.
The existing beacon, which officials call the VOR cone -- the name refers to the VHF omnidirectional radio range, a ground-based system maintained by the FAA that can be used to guide aircraft -- has limited development in the southern area of the port, where the facility is located on 55 acres.
Todd Mueller, an engineer and vice president with the firm Garver, told board members on Wednesday that the FAA will move equipment from the beacon at the port to the new site, which is situated off Wooten Road near Sherwood.
Installation by the FAA should take a couple of months, Mueller said.
Day said last year that he believed the old VOR cone could be razed within 30 days after it is decommissioned.
Also on Wednesday, Day informed board members that six cars on a BNSF Railway train derailed from the port's main line two days earlier.
"Six cars fell off, rolled the track," Day said. "And we, of course, are saying it was operator error. They're saying it's track error."
It took about a day to put the track back together, he said. As far as the derailed cars, Day said, "Nothing spilled, nothing broke, no cargo was damaged."