SELLERSBURG — Who will be awarded the contract for the next phase of work on the runway expansion project at the Clark County Regional Airport? It depends on how much federal funding is awarded for the endeavor.
The South Central Regional Airport Authority opened bids for the work last week, which will primarily entail the excavation of about 200,000 cubic yards of dirt to make way for 1,500 feet of new runway.
But the contract for the work has yet to be awarded.
Instead, the SCRAA used the numbers it received in the bids to write a grant application to the Federal Aviation Administration. The SCRAA board is optimistic, said President Tom Galligan.
“Whether we get the full amount we’re requesting or what part we get determines what we get done,” Galligan said. “We’re hoping we get enough to do all of it.”
The excavation project included a base package and two additional components, explained Mike Harris, engineer with Jacobi, Toombs and Lanz, the firm contracted by the SCRAA. The base package included the bulk of the excavation work, while the first additive was for the removal of the structure that houses the airport’s navigational beacon, or navaid, from its current location and the second additive is for the installation of the new navaid, he said.
If the FAA awards enough money to do the whole project, E&B Paving will be awarded the contract with a low bid of about $2.5 million. If there’s only enough money to pay for the base bid package or the base and the first additive, the contract will be awarded to Crider & Crider, as it submitted low bids of $1.84 million and $1.96 million, respectively.
The SCRAA should have an answer from the FAA by Sept. 1, said SCRAA attorney Greg Fifer, and a contract could be awarded soon after the FAA responds to the grant request.
The period in which the navaid is removed but not yet reconstructed will impact some flights, but won’t shut down the airport, Harris said.
“It limits the weather conditions that you can fly in and out of,” Harris said. “That’s probably the biggest thing.”
The work will take up to six months to complete after a contract is awarded, Harris said.
The paving contract for the runway will be awarded next year, Galligan said.
“What we don’t get done this year, we’re going to get done next year,” Galligan said.
Source: http://www.newsandtribune.com
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