COVINGTON — The Covington Municipal Airport will close for runway construction beginning Sept. 21 and could remain closed until November.

The surface needs repair because of holes on the runway and a dip between the old and new portions. Other work also includes fixing the taxiway, repaving the apron where the plane tie downs and hangars are located, and moving the fuel farms. The cost is about $3 million, but the city will only pay about $200,000; the state and federal Departments of Transportation will cover the remainder.

The runway portion is contracted to take up to 60 days from the date of closing, meaning the airport could be closed until late November.

Repairing the taxiway and apron and moving the fuel farms will take an additional 30 days, but planes will be allowed to take off and land once the runway is finished.

Construction was slated to start as early as late July, but the testing and coordination efforts pushed the start date back to September. Pittman Construction Co., which was awarded the $3 million bid earlier this year, will try to finish the project before the designated time frame, said Bill Walker of PBS&J, the project manager.

He said November historically is a bad month for construction because of rain and low temperatures, which negatively affect the pouring of cement and asphalt.

City Manager Steve Horton has said that Pittman must finish the runway within 60 days or it will face monetary penalties.

Officials are spreading the word about the airport closing to as many people as possible to avoid any unaware aircraft from attempting to land during the construction.

Rusty Anglin of Atlanta East Aviation called the airport’s aircraft owners last week to give them time to move their planes.

The owners have been prepared for the closing of the airport for months, and Anglin has said that 90 percent of the planes have plans to move to other airports in cities such as Monroe and Madison.