Bid approved for airport project...Beatrice Municipal awaits FAA funding
BEATRICE – The Beatrice Municipal Airport is hoping for Federal Aviation Administration grant approval this year, to help finance a significant safety upgrade at the facility.
The Beatrice City Council and Airport Advisory Board have approved a bid submitted by Vogts Parga Construction of Moundridge, Kansas to reconstruct a taxiway and apron and adjusting the location of the airport’s fueling station, at a cost of $5.66 million. Two bids were submitted…and the engineering estimate was $6.25 million.
Airport Manager Dennis Schmitt says the project has been on the drawing board for several years. "If we do get the funding, we would be replacing the ramp out here. We also have a fuel island which they'd be removing the underground storage tanks for that. We'd get an above ground storage tank for one-hundred low-lead aviation fuel, There's also a connector a little ways down the parallel taxiway that would allow people to turn off onto the taxiway from the main runway, to come back to the main ramp. We would also lose the direct access from the ramp to the runway. That's kind of been an FAA thing, where regulations require that you make some turns before you go to the runway. They don't want a direct shot."
Schmitt says a decision on the federal grant should be known before the fall. There is a holding period of 60-to-90 days following the bid approval, before the grant decision is announced. The current airport fuel island would be moved to the south edge of the apron area.
"The apron is actually going to get pushed out a little bit further and will be a little bit bigger. You get rid of that congestion with the island out in the middle....so it will free up some space."
In recent weeks, several formalized leases for hangar space at Beatrice Municipal have been approved by the city council. Five more were approved Monday night.