Nearly a whopping 3 months ahead of schedule, the 10,000 foot primary runway is only weeks from seeing the first warm morsels of pavement.  Although the current contract is for 8,400 feet, the funding is in place for the full 10,000 feet.  Hopefully this decision will be solidified in the coming weeks.

“Next week, we’ll begin laying pavement test strips for the runway,” said the Senior Project Manager for KBR, Roy Willett.  With over 130 pieces of Caterpillar equipment on site, the project has moved over 4 million cubic yards of material.  “There’s been a great level of cooperation from a local, state, and federal level,” said Willett.  “We don’t feel like we’ve had to pull this project along, like we have others in the past.”  80% of all storm sewer systems have been installed.

The main loop is paved, all except in front of the terminal.  There are heavy utilities that will be in front of the terminal building that need to be installed before the the paving can take place.  The 11,000 foot, 4 lane entrance road from Highway 388 has been completed since June and is now completely replaced the usage of the temporary construction entrance.

Looking at the terminal footprint, I expressed concern about the future expansion of the terminal building the additional airport facilities.  Randy Curtis explained that the terminal building can be expanded to the north and south to accommodate demand and the concourse could V at the end to purvey supplemental gates.  Long term plans also include another runway parallel to the primary runway with room for a terminal similar in size to the main terminal and a “mid-field” terminal as well.

With all the “bad” soil filling the holes where the “good” soil was excavated, the entire construction site is “balanced” in that no dirt had to be taken out, nor brought in.

The 10,000 foot runway will accomodate everything short of an Antonov filled with pipes.

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