Lincoln Airport (KLNK), Nebraska: Runway project delayed after bid comes in too high

The Lincoln Airport is going back to the drawing board after the sole bid it got for a runway rehabilitation project came in way higher than expected. 

The concrete and asphalt surface of the airport's main runway hasn't been resurfaced for about 20 years, Airport Executive Director John Wood said.

An engineer estimated the work would cost about $4.9 million, which is what the airport got approval for from the Federal Aviation Administration.

However, the sole bid on the project, from local firm Constructors Inc., was $6.2 million.

The FAA, which will pay for 90 percent of the project, said that's too high, so the Airport Authority formally rejected the bid Thursday at its monthly meeting.

Now, the board plans to break the project up into two components -- concrete and asphalt -- and seek separate bids for the work.

John Large, the airport's deputy director for engineering, said plenty of local firms are interested in doing the concrete work, but it is tougher to find companies to do the asphalt part.

Large said he has reached out to asphalt companies in Omaha as well as Iowa, Kansas and western Nebraska and hopes to get more interest.

The board did accept another bid Thursday that came in higher than expected, approving an $8.2 million proposal from NGC Inc. to put up a new building in the Air Park rail center that will be occupied by Hexagon Lincoln.

That bid was about $400,000 higher than an engineer's estimate.

Wood said multiple bids came in for the project -- all higher than the estimate -- and $400,000 on an $8 million project is a reasonable variance.

He said construction should start in May, and the hope is that Hexagon will be able to move into the manufacturing part of the space by December, with completion of the rest of the building by March.

The 110,000-square-foot building is part of a $26 million expansion by the company that makes natural gas fuel and storage tanks.

Hexagon will occupy a little more than half of the space. Wood said he has already had interest in the rest and expects to have it leased before the building is complete.

Source: http://journalstar.com