Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Indiana County Airport (Jimmy Stewart Field) KIDI gears up for new runway, manager says. Indiana, Pennsylvania.

Todd Heming, Jimmy Stewart Airport manager. 
Tom Peel / Indiana Gazette



Indiana County's Jimmy Stewart Airport is undertaking the third phase of construction for a 5,500-foot runway that will replace the existing 4,000-foot runway. The third phase had been delayed because of costs -- construction bids greatly exceeded estimates.

The project is being paid for through government grants, and to stay within budget, the county had to redesign the runway and forgo other planned work, such as extending the existing runway, which was to have become a fully parallel taxiway for the new runway.

Gazette staffer Sam Kusic recently sat down with Todd Heming, the airport manager, to talk about the project and other developments at the airport.

Question: What happened that the construction bids far exceeded the cost estimates for the runway extension?

Answer: A lot of it had to do with the price of oil. You have to realize that we had to prepare these cost estimates eight years ago. When you do that, the FAA locks you into that number. There is no inflation (allowance) that they'll give you. You have to stick with the numbers you prepared. It makes it difficult to do projects because of that. The highway department can go back to the Federal Highway Administration and say, "OK, the price of oil went up, therefore the price of pavement went up, therefore we need a cost escalation." We can't do that. We're locked into the prices we prepared years ago.

Question: Does the airport authority have the cash on hand to cover the difference?

Answer: I don't have the cash laying around. We had budgeted a certain amount of money for in-house projects that we had planned on doing -- some renovations of buildings and some repairs to pavement. We put those on hold so we could come up with some of the local money to finish the project. So we had to do some adjusting on our in-house budgets.

Question: What specifically did you have to put off?

Answer: We're going to have to set aside replacing a hangar door that has reached the end of its useful life. The building is still in good shape, but the door needed replaced. So we'll have to do some light maintenance on the door to keep it going.

Question: Will the lack of a fully parallel taxiway pose a problem?

Answer: It's going to be a slight hindrance. We are going to seek additional funding to finish the taxiway. The FAA understands that once you have a large runway in place you need something to support it. They realize that, and we've been talking to them.

Question: What is a full instrument landing system and how does that compare to what the airport is using now?

Answer: We have a partial instrument landing system. It's what they call a nonprecision system. It gives horizontal guidance, left and right. At different stages from the distance out from the runway, the pilot can drop down to certain altitudes at each stage, but it doesn't bring you down as low (as a precision system).

A precision system, it's almost like a scope on a rifle. It has crosshairs, and they have those onboard the aircraft. It gives you not only horizontal guidance, but also vertical guidance. So it brings you down this long tunnel-like (path) right down to the end of the runway. On those days when the clouds are low and visibility is down, it allows (pilots) to make the runway.

With the speed of the aircraft that are out there today and the weather patterns we get in this area, we need a precision approach.

Question: Which is the priority, the taxiway or the instrument landing system?

Answer: They have to be together. You can't get the full ILS unless you have a parallel taxiway.

Question: Could the county or the airport authority borrow the money instead and finish the project all at the same time?

Answer: It wouldn't be fiscally prudent to do that because it would take so much money. We're one of the highest regulated agencies in the United States. To jump through all the hoops and to complete all the studies that are required to do anything, it's very costly.

Question: What was the reasoning for extending the runway in the first place?

Answer: The business community came to us and said that they can't bring their aircraft in if the weather is down or if the runway is wet -- they have load factors they have to watch, such as how many people they put onboard the aircraft. They asked us if we could do something to alleviate the problems they were having, so we did a purpose-and-needs study first to see if it was justifiable and how much need was out there. That study came back telling us, "Yes, the need is there."

So we had to develop a model with the FAA as to how big of a runway we needed and what we could support. We had to do a study to determine what size aircraft the businesses were using and their load factors. We had to use hard numbers. We couldn't say that, well, maybe if we put this length of runway in, maybe this other company would come in. (We determined) we needed 5,500 feet of runway to support the aircraft the businesses were using at the time, and we needed a full instrument approach system.

Question: When is the runway project scheduled for completion? Next fall?

Answer: That's the plan. It's a one-year construction contract. We're going to (ask the contractor) to finish up the project as quickly as possible, or at least to get the paving done by late fall. A lot of it is going to depend on how many people and how many pieces of equipment they can get here to put on site. That will give us the timing of it. So we're planning to have it completed by fall.

Question: Do you think the demand is there for the longer runway?

Answer: I had companies calling me as of last week wanting to know when the runway is going to be completed because they can't get their jets in here. They have to go elsewhere, and they have to rent cars and whatnot. They'd prefer to come into Indiana.

Question: Are you seeing many flights that relate to the Marcellus shale industry?

Answer: There are companies that located in the area because of the airport. We have a lot of inquiry of how close we are to a lot of things, so, yeah, it hinges around accessibility to Indiana. It's not only the Marcellus drilling, it's the support companies that support their equipment, the pumps and things like that. Employees, too, some of the specialized employees that they need to move around. It's varied. The power plant industry (is another example). With all of the power plants close by, this is the closest airport for them to get in and out of. They like to use it.

Question: You've said the airport is growing. How so?

Answer: Private businesses just completed two hangars here on the facility. As a matter of fact, I have two requests for additional space for hangars. So we are growing even though the economy is down.

Question: Is the airport growing in other ways?

Answer: We're talking to some people about opening a restaurant. I have some IUP students at the Small Business Institute working on some need profiles for a restaurant here, and I have an individual who is local and owns other businesses interested in developing a restaurant. So we're in preliminary discussions.

Question: When you say restaurant, do you mean something like a lunch counter or a full sit-down venue?

Answer: That's some of the information that the IUP students have been putting together for us, and a determination will be made once we gather all of that information. They're taking surveys not only of the area, but of other airports and how they work things.

Question: When would you look to open the restaurant?

Answer: It depends on the (developer). That's an internal business decision I'm not privy to. I'm hoping it's going to be soon. The sooner the better. I only have a certain amount of space here, and if I lease it all off for hangar development, then they might lose out on a prime piece of area they might prefer to have for a restaurant.

Question: Where would you build a restaurant? In the terminal?

Answer: We've discussed attaching it to the terminal, but not in the terminal. We've also discussed an external building standing by itself. A lot of it has to do with their philosophy and their idea -- what would attract patrons? They're going to have to make that decision on their own.

Question: Could you say who the developer is?

Answer: I cannot say at this point in time. It's early in the discussions with them. I'll wait for them to make the decision.

Question: I see there is a Hertz car rental stand in the terminal. Is that new?

Answer: That just came last fall. It's one-way rentals. It's growing. It's something that's helping with the development of Indiana. We have people that flew into Pittburgh, they rent a car at Hertz down there and drive to Indiana and drop the car here because they have business in the area. We have students coming out of different areas that rent a car to come to IUP and they can drop the car here. It's working well. As a matter of fact, I'm going to have to develop another parking lot by the way it looks to house all the cars.

Source:  http://www.indianagazette.com

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