(ABC 6 News) — Senator Tina Smith made a trip to Rochester on Friday to tour the Rochester International Airport.

The tour comes after recently approved funding from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program.

With that funding, RIA was able to replace a runway and make necessary safety improvements, but the work isn’t done yet.

“I’m also excited to see what the city is planning to do to improve the parking, to add solar panels on covered parking which will basically provide 50% of the energy needs for this whole terminal once that project is done,” Smith said.

The first phase of the airport’s $79 million runway replacement project was completed in November of 2021 with funding from the FAA allowing the second phase of improvements to be completed.

“We wouldn’t be able to do a lot of the projects without that funding, so just being able to do the lighting projects and the runways and things like that, just money that we need in order to be able to stay able to fly planes as much we do,” said Jason Stini, the Finance and Administration Manager at the RIA.

The runway project is now in its third of six phases.