Airport expansion keeps jets landing

Spending nearly $13 million to lengthen the secondary runway helped the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport avoid a costly shutdown.

By adding 2,400 feet to the secondary runway, the airport was able to continue commercial airline service while working on the main runway. If the airport would have closed for the 60- to 90-day construction period, southwest Missouri could have lost up to $300 million in potential economic im-pact, said Robert Hancik, director of aviation for the airport.

Runway improvements

The extension of the secondary runway and rebuilding of the primary runway are part of a nearly $35 million capital im-provement project to refurbish the airport's runway system, Hancik said.

The secondary runway extension began in May 2001 and was completed Nov. 20. It extended the airport's east-west runway by 2,400 feet from 5,600 feet to 8,000 feet.

The improvements don't come cheap.

According to Tony Ori, the on-site construction coordinator for Washington Infrastructure, the Denver-based design and engineering firm in charge of the project, the costs on the secondary runway project were: $4.154 million for clearing land, $6.740 million for the 2,400 foot extension, $800,000 to install an instrument landing system and $1 million to construct an electrical vault.

The cost to completely rebuild the primary runway is $11 million. Beyond these items, $3.571 million is assigned to building Taxiway U and $3 million is for realigning Taxiway D, Ori added.

Several Springfield firms are involved in the airport's construction process, Ori said. Kennedy Contractors Inc. is moving the earth; APAC Masters Jackson is involved in the asphalt paving; Anderson Engineering Inc. is doing survey work; and Palmerton & Parrish Inc. is in charge of quality assurance and quality control, Ori said. Emery Sapp & Sons out of Columbia is the prime contractor, he said.

Frank Bush, senior project manager for Washington Infrastructure, said his firm is charging the airport about $3.5 million for its services.

Financing

The majority of financing for the runway improvements comes via a letter of intent for $30.2 million from the Federal Aviation Administration's Airport Trust Fund. Those funds will be disbursed to the airport over a five-year period, Hancik said.

In anticipation of those funds, the airport issued municipal bonds through the Capital Projects Finance Authority for $34.455 million, said Mark Roy, business manager for the airport. "The bonds have been sold; the proceeds have been received and deposited with the trustee, who is Bank of New York," he said.

"The final maturity on the bonds is June 1, 2020," Roy said. By that time, "we'll have retired that debt using proceeds from the letter of intent as it's received and other airport revenues."

Supplemental dollars in addition to the FAA funds are coming from airport revenues generated by airplane landing fees, terminal space and counter rentals for commercial carriers and car rental agencies, parking fees, a portion of the restaurant's profits, and indirectly from passenger facility charges, said Sherry Wallace, director of marketing and communication for the airport.

"We structured the issue where it's basically a level airport contribution of $750,000 per year over the life of the bonds," Roy said.

Necessary improvements

The runways' age and condition precipitated the work initially. A runway is built with a crown in the middle of it, Hancik said, which allows for runoff of water and other debris. Typical runway life expectancy is about 20 years, but the Springfield-Branson strips hadn't been worked on since 1973, he said. "We were losing our crown in the runway."

In fact, the crown of Springfield-Bran-son Regional Airport's primary runway had disappeared. "It's a function of the snow plowing, is what it really boils down to. The snowplows catch the crown; they just shave it off," Ori said. Rebuilding the primary runway entirely will rectify the many problems that runway had. It should be finished by this September, he added.

In addition to the ongoing runway projects, at the April 18 board meeting "the board authorized the staff to start the process for the selection of a design firm for the Midfield Terminal Project," Han-cik said.

Identified in the airport's overall building plan as T4 for the airport's fourth terminal building the proposed $80 million structure is set to have 16 new gates and comprise nearly 300,000 square feet.

The current terminal area is about 200,000 square feet, Hancik said.

"If an airport isn't under constant expansion, you're losing ground," Han-cik said. He said if only one or two new carriers wanted to serve the Springfield-Branson area, the current situation wouldn't accommodate them. "We don't have the gate space to park the airplanes," he added.