A portion of Hannibal Regional Airport's new taxiway/ramp expansion is shown in early October.
Hannibal -- Construction of two corporate aircraft hangars could begin soon at Hannibal Regional Airport. The way was cleared for the next phase of development to begin at the airport after a final inspection was made of the taxiway/ramp expansion project in mid November.
“Everything went really, really well,” said Brian Chaplin, Department of Public Works superintendent, regarding the inspection which included members of MoDOT Aviation, Jviation, Inc., the city’s engineering consultant regarding the airport, Bross Construction, the taxiway/ramp project contractor, and the city.
“They (Bross) did a wonderful job,” Chaplin added. “We are very proud of the way the project turned out.”
The project, which had a 60-day window for completion, officially started Aug. 5.
“Aside from a couple of small glitches we had in the project, they got the job done in a timely manner. It was very successful,” said Chaplin.
One of the “glitches” actually saved the city money. When it appeared some water lines would have to be relocated a change order of $17,540 was approved by the City Council, 10 percent of which — $1,754 — would have come out of city coffers. The remainder would have been paid for through entitlement dollars the city’s airport receives annually. However, it turned out that no pipes had to be moved.
“We actually had an under-run instead of an over-run. We’ll be saving even more money at the end of this payout,” said Chaplin, without detailing how much more will be saved or from where in the project the savings would come.
George Walley of the city’s Airport Advisory Board said during the Nov. 12 meeting that the stage is set for hangar work.
“All the prep work is done. The infrastructure is done,” he said. “They could begin any time on the hangars.”
As of Thursday, Dec. 10, no hangar work had commenced at the airport, according to Robin Carroll, the airport’s fixed base operator.
While the over half million dollar expansion of the taxiway/ramp was funded with public dollars, the new hangars will be private undertakings, built on land leased from the city.
“They’ll be built by a private contractor,” said Chaplin. “They’re going to build a couple of large ones (hangars).”
Reportedly one of the new hangars will serve as the new home of Survival Flight, an air ambulance service, which currently operates out of a mobile trailer located near the airport terminal. The other hangar will be built for Hannibal nursing home executive, Rick DeStefane.
Chaplin is excited about the prospect of seeing new construction at the airport.
“It’s really going to make the airport so much better,” he said. “The airport is growing every year and believe it or not we’re going to keep adding to it as long as MoDOT Aviation gives us that money every year that we can use for these bigger projects. And if you don’t see something one year it’s because we’re saving it (annual grant money) for a bigger project.”
Source: http://www.hannibal.net
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