Airport project closer to reality

By Ralph Pokorny

Herald-Tribune

Nevada, Mo. -- The Nevada Airport Board moved the renovations at the Nevada Municipal Airport a little closer to reality during a special meeting Thursday. The board voted to recommend that the city council accept the bids for the runway renovations and voted to recommend that council approve advertising for bids for the new terminal building.

"Because we're coordinating both projects we'll have both a new runway and a new terminal at the same time," Mark Mitchell, Nevada's project manager, said with a whoop.

Mitchell said the bids for the runway resurfacing will go to the city council on May 15, for their approval.

Emery Sapp & Sons Inc., had the low bid of $1,909,115.55 for a concrete runway, while the nearest bid for an asphalt surface came in about $10,000 lower at $1,919,142.27. Kimrey Electric had the low bid of $286,508 for the electrical work.

The project to resurface the runway has been in the works for several years and in the long run will benefit from the delays that have beset the project. When planning for the resurfacing started, the airport board would have liked to install a concrete runway, instead of laying asphalt again, but a concrete surface was not considered a likely possibility because the cost of concrete at that time was considerably higher than asphalt.

During the one-year delay in starting the project, the cost of asphalt has gone up enough to make concrete, which also has a longer lifetime, the lower cost option.

"The bid opening for the terminal building will be on June 12, at 4 p.m., in the council chambers and we want to take the bids to the council on June 19 to get their approval," Mitchell told the board.

"You will have to have a board meeting between June 12 and 19 to vote on the bids before they go to the council," he said.

If the city council accepts the low bids for the terminal building, work is expected to begin on June 19, with the removal of asbestos in the current building by city workers prior to their demolition of the terminal, the beacon and moving the propane tank between June 21 and 29.

Construction of the new terminal is anticipated to start on July 2, with completion on Nov. 1.