Saturday, November 14, 2015

Cheyenne Regional Airport Board hires construction manager for new terminal



CHEYENNE - A construction company from Sparks, Nevada, has been hired by the Cheyenne Regional Airport Board to oversee the design process of a new passenger terminal.

On Thursday, the board unanimously OK'd the selection of Q&D Construction Inc. as the construction manager at risk through the new building's final design.

The board agreed to pay the company $114,020.

The design is about 25 percent done, said Jim Schell, deputy director of aviation at the airport.

If the board is satisfied with the work the company does in the next few months, it can continue through the entire project.

A second contract would be drawn up for work done in the construction phase.

"This is a very big deal for us," Duane Boreham, vice president of aviation division for Q&D Construction, told the board.

He and Dave Evans, senior estimator at the construction company, attended the meeting.

"We won't disappoint you," Boreham added. "We are very experienced in this type of construction, especially with the securities portion, the security checkpoint and the baggage handling system.

"We will do our best to get everything off of your wish list onto the actual building project."

The company has worked with more than 100 airports, Boreham said.

Q&D built the Reno/Tahoe Airport and is constructing the airport at San Luis Obispo, California. Q&D also has worked on baggage systems for Southwest Airlines and at other airports, including facilities in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The cost of the new passenger terminal at the Cheyenne airport, along a new parking lot and apron to park airplanes and a road system, is estimated at $16 million, Schell said.

Money comes from several sources, including the Laramie County voters, who approved part of a sixth-penny sales tax for it; the Federal Aviation Administration; airport bonds; and a state-funded grant through the Wyoming Business Council.

The contract with Q&D is for the design of the terminal only. Other improvements in the project will be done separately.

The passenger terminal will be built near the airport's existing concrete administration building on Airport Parkway.

The passenger terminal will be built just south of the main runway and will be more or less centralized within the context of the airfield, Schell said.

The new terminal will replace the existing one, which was built in the 1960s. It is outdated and expensive to operate, officials say. What happens with the blue building has not been decided.

Construction on the new terminal is set to start in June and finish in 2017.

"As far as I'm concerned, time is of the essence to get it done," board member Pete Illoway said.

He said he doesn't want delays like those occurring with the state Capitol's renovation project.

"I don't want to see us slip and not start on time," he added. "I don't want to see it. I don't want to hear it."

Boreham said his company finished the Reno/ Lake Tahoe airport two months ahead of schedule.

He added that he wants to keep the work local.

"I do want everybody to be very aware that we fully intend on using local workforces," he said.

Boreham and Evans met Thursday with airport staff and the project architect to move ahead with plans.

The construction manager at risk method that the airport will use to build the terminal is the most expedient way to get it done, Boreham said.

The process reduces the amount of unknowns in the actual construction, Schell added.

Q&D Construction will determine a guaranteed maximum price for the terminal. If costs exceed that, the construction company, not the owner, will pay for them.

The selection process took about two months. Five companies responded to a request from the airport. A committee selected three finalists and interviewed them.

The panel was made up of two airport employees, an employee from another airport, an employee from Cheyenne LEADS (the economic development arm of Laramie County) and a member of SEH, the airport's engineering firm for the project.

-Source:  http://www.wyomingnews.com

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