Having been up there, I was able to take video of the creeks and waterways that serve as the natural water run-off point for the new Panama City Airport. Again, I was able to see no apparent damage or side-effects of any damage. However, apparently, after the comments in the other post, I would need to be in a helicopter to observe the claimed negative effects the airport construction site is having on the environment.
Tag: bay county airport
All Legal Actions Against Airport are Over
A recent ruling ended all pending legal actions against the airport as the United States Court of Appeals denied all legal challenges to the relocation of the Panama City Bay County International Airport. The legal challenges were brought upon by The National Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife and Friends of PFN, who argued against the FAA and Airport on January 23, 2008. Baring an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, all legal challenges should be over.
Here is the press release:
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on May 1 denied a pending petition for review of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Record of Decision approving the relocation of the Panama City – Bay County International Airport to a new site in West Bay, Florida.
The National Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife and Friends of PFN argued against the FAA and Airport on January 23, 2008. The court ruling denying the petition for review ends all pending legal challenges to the airport relocation, absent a petition for rehearing or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The new airport is currently under construction and is 55% complete. The Panama City – Bay County Airport and Industrial Board’s current schedule anticipates a May 2010 opening for the first international airport built in the United States since Denver International Airport was completed in 1995.
The airport is being built on 4,000 acres donated by The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) and is part the West Bay Sector Plan, a 75,000-acre regional planning effort, one of the largest ever in Florida.
The West Bay Sector Plan includes 41,000 acres of conservation land. Already approximately 10,000 acres have been permanently protected through an irrevocable conservation easement to the State of Florida as a result of the relocation of the airport. Ultimately, 33 miles of undeveloped West Bay shoreline and an additional 44 miles of creeks and tributaries that feed the bay will be protected forever.
“We are very grateful to the Court for its conscientious consideration of the case,” said Airport Authority Vice Chairman Bill Cramer. “I do not believe that a petition for rehearing or appeal will be successful if attempted. Therefore, the Court’s ruling should bring full closure to all pending legal challenges. We continue to move forward building an airport that will better serve Bay County and Northwest Florida for many decades to come.”
In it’s ruling, the Court found:
- The FAA complied with the procedural requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in evaluating the proposal to build the new airport at West Bay, and
- The FAA’s decision that no prudent alternatives to the proposed West Bay Site existed was “not arbitrary, capricious, and abuse of discretion or otherwise contrary to law.”
“We are focused on building a state-of-the-art facility that will be one of the greenest airports in the world,” said Cramer. “The Court’s ruling and the consequent resolution of all pending legal challenges will provide a boost to our airline marketing and business recruitment efforts.”
“The Court’s action last week represents another important milestone in our effort to improve air service for the people of Bay County and Northwest Florida,” said Airport Authority Chairman Joe Tannehill. “We are now past the halfway point with construction. We are ramping up our airline and economic development marketing efforts, and we have redoubled our commitment to building and operating a ‘green’ airport. We are looking forward to opening the new airport in less than thirteen months.”
Airport Authority Submits Stormwater Plan to DEP
Airport Authority Chairman Joe Tannehill reported that the airport construction team and engineers had completed their plan for addressing stormwater management deficiencies at the new airport site in West Bay. The Airport Authority submitted the plan to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for review and approval.
“This represents the first step in correcting stormwater management issues at the airport site,” said Tannehill. “We have hard work ahead, but we are committed to correcting deficiencies on the site as soon as possible. I have instructed our construction team to begin implementing our plan immediately. If FDEP requests changes or suggest ways to strengthen our plan, we’ll make adjustments as necessary.”
Last week FDEP officials and representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) toured the new airport construction site and expressed concerns that current efforts to mitigate excessive stormwater runoff had become inadequate in the wake of unusually heavy rains during the month of April.
FDEP requested that the Airport Authority submit its plan for correcting the deficiencies by April 29. Chairman Tannehill quickly convened the site contractors and pushed them to address the stormwater management issues as aggressively as possible.
Under the plan submitted to FDEP by the airport construction team will:
- Finalize the site’s western perimeter ditch, which includes sodding the entire channel allowing water from north of the site to by-pass the site and not be degraded in quality. This work should be complete in approximately two weeks.
- Set up filtration pumping system to remove sediment from water on site so when it leaves the site it will meet permit requirements. This new system will be operational within one week.
- Finalize the outfall area to Morrell Branch which includes riprap, seeding and sodding.
- Complete the drainage system in the crosswind runway area, which will also finalize the outfall system to Morrell Branch.
- The airport construction team noted that one of the biggest stormwater management issues is managing water flows on to the property from “outside the fence.” Old logging ditches and pipe systems have become overgrown and filled with debris through the years. The ditches filled during the massive rain storms and the water flowed onto the site.
The Airport Authority has asked permission from the Army Corps of Engineers to work on these problem areas outside the 1300 acre construction area.
“We have put together a good plan to address the deficiencies,” said Tannehill. “We look forward to any suggestions and improvements that FDEP may provide. Our immediate focus is to implement these corrective measures as soon as possible. We have begun work already.”
“Developing this plan was the first step in addressing the problem,” said Tannehill. “We will continue to review the root causes and the lessons learned from what has happened. In the days and weeks ahead we will continue to share information with the public and keep the community informed with the steps we are taking to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Regular updates on stormwater management and other issues will be posted on the Airport Authority’s public information web site at http://www.newpcairport.com.
“I learned long ago that you learn more from difficult situations than easy ones,” said Tannehill. “This has most certainly been a difficult situation. This airport Board resolved long ago to make the new Panama City – Bay County International Airport one of the world’s most environmentally-friendly, and the events of the last week have taught us a lot and strengthened our commitment to the environment.”
“We will continue working with FDEP to ensure our new airport ultimately results in a net environmental gain for our region, and to build and operate one of the nation’s greenest airports,” said Tannehill.
The plan the Airport Authority submitted to FDEP can be downloaded here.
How It's Done – Paving a Runway Video
So, I thought it would be cool to shoot a video on how they paved the runway, and turns out, I was right – it is cool. Maybe I’m a nerd, but I found it amazing how they brought in the concrete material, then formed it into a beautiful, nearly flawless, 15 inch slab, working many yards in mere minutes.
The dump trucks would pull under a huge loader that would fill its bed with 10 yards of concrete in 2 minutes. With the time it takes for the truck to stage its position, load and move for the next truck, a truck can be filled every 2.5 minutes.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3972906&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
Paving the Runway at the new Panama City Airport from Jason Koertge on Vimeo.
The runway paving process was, I thought, interesting. Consisting of 15 inches of concrete on top of 4 inches of asphalt, the runway will be capable of handling the load of the largest of aircraft.
Each dump truck would back the loads down the asphalt sometimes up to a quarter mile, then dump their load right in front of the first machine. As the machine worked the pile of concrete to fit under its 15 inch clearance, workers would grab a sample of the concrete with shovels to take back and test. Each load of concrete was tested to be sure that it met the proper strength requirements.
As the concrete passes under the machine, 1 inch rods comb through the mixture vibrating at a high rate of speed to be sure the mixture compacts. It exits the other side a basic form, but not smoothed. The next machine refines the shape, vibrates and compacts more and spits the smoothed almost finished runway out the back end.
The main 8,600 feet of the runway is paved as of right now and upon arrival of the FAA approval of the extension, the remaining 1.400 feet will be paved in about 10 days.
Airport bringing in third-party for commercial and industrial development
This news is a little stale, but I needed to get this up.
The Airport Authority decided last week to bring in a third-party developer to manage the development of the 1,400 acres set aside for commercial and industrial uses. Authority members voted for Jones Lang LeSalle over four other companies including Hunt Development Group, St. Joe/Haskell, Taylor & Mathis and TranSystems.
The Jones Lang LeSalle website touts that they are a global company with over 750 locations worldwide, and they manage properties in countries ranging from India to New Zealand and everywhere in between. They will bring their expertise here not only to ensure that the area around the airport is developed correctly, but that it has the best opportunity to be occupied by quality businesses and/or services.
I think this is great as it, again, opens up our area to people and organizations that are outside our market and operate on a much larger scale.
Airport Update – Pictures of the Terminal Progress
The terminal at the new Panama City Airport located in West Bay in Bay County is moving along at a swift pace. The percentage complete is just under 20% with all the pilings in place and the second floor structure being formed right now.
Construction of the terminal will last for the duration of the project.
Source: newpcairport.com
New Airport Terminal Ready for Construction
As reported by NewPCAirport.com.
Construction of the new airport remains ahead of schedule – with only 36% of the time allotted on the heavy civil construction portion of the contract used, the project is currently 46% complete.
Walbridge, the company slated to build the terminal building and all support buildings is scheduled to be on site by October 20.
Preparation of the terminal building pad is complete and it is ready for construction to begin. Walbridge is just waiting on the Notice to Proceed from the Airport Authority Board which is expected on October 15, 2008.
The project is moving forward on all fronts. Currently:
- The stabilized sub grad for the terminal parking lot area is complete, the curbing for the lot is ongoing and the limerock base is nearly 60% complete.
- Curbing on the loop road is ongoing.
- The General Aviation area access road is being final graded.
- The flight line storm sewer is 85% complete.
- On Runway 16-34, the asphalt base layer was scheduled to start going down on October 10, 2008. Concrete paving on the runway is expected to begin on November 11, 2008.
- The earthwork on Taxiway D is 97% complete, with the stabilized sub grade 65% complete. The limerock base is nearing 50% completion. Asphalt paving is anticipated to start October 10, 2008.
- The security fence around the perimeter of the airport is 46% complete.
- Earthwork on the perimeter road is nearing 85% completion and the stabilization of the sub grade is ongoing.
New Airport Construction Update
Well, with the new website, apparently comes more consistent updates. Recently posted, the airport is around 3 months ahead of schedule. With just over 40% of the total construction contract completed on 34% of the total construction TIME has elapsed.
- 4.5 million cubic yards of excavation has been completed (about 80% of the expected total).
- 12,500 linear feet of storm sewer is in place and 10,360 tons of asphalt which meets all interim milestones for the project.
- Earthwork on Runway 16-34 is 99% complete and the asphalt base for the runway will be laid starting on October 6, 2008. Concrete paving on the runway should begin around November 24, 2008.
- The limerock base course is complete in the northern half of the terminal parking lot and is continuing in the rest of the parking lot. Curb installation in the parking lot is nearing 90%.
- The guard rail is being installed at County Road 388 entrance.
- 2.5” of asphalt base course is in place along the 11,000 linear feet of the main access road.
- The security fence around the perimeter of the airport property is approximately 35% complete
- The building pad for the terminal building is complete. Construction on the terminal building is scheduled to begin in October pending award of the contract for construction by the Airport Authority Board.
New Airport lauches New Web Site
The Panama City – Bay County International Airport announced that it has launched a new web site to help educate the public on the progress of its new $318.5 million airport.
The user-friendly site includes a timeline of milestones leading up to the groundbreaking of the airport, the first built in the U.S. in the past 13 years, as well as constant photo and video updates on the development of the airport. Current video updates featured are from pcbdaily.com!
“The development of the new airport is moving forward ahead of schedule and on budget,” said Airport Executive Director, Randy Curtis. “This new web site is a vehicle to carry useful and interesting project information to the local community, traveling public and those in the aviation and transportation industries.”
The website, www.newpcairport.com, features numerous photographs and videos of the many elements of construction and illustrates the progress now underway. Navigation tabs found on the site’s home page also allow users to easily access information regarding environmental impact, project partners and important contact information.
The daily countdown feature on the website lets readers know how many days are left until the Airport Authority’s target opening date of Memorial Day 2010.
All visitors to www.newpcairport.com are invited to use the site’s subscribe feature to have project updates sent directly to their e-mail.
Letter from Delta – "sharp economic downturn"
Last week as I was on vacation, Delta sent a letter to frequent flyers, warning that we will see a “sharp economic downturn because of skyrocketing oil and fuel prices.”
The rest of the email reads:
Our country is facing a possible sharp economic downturn because of skyrocketing oil and fuel prices, but by pulling together, we can all do something to help now.
For airlines, ultra-expensive fuel means thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service to both large and small communities. To the broader economy, oil prices mean slower activity and widespread economic pain. This pain can be alleviated, and that is why we are taking the extraordinary step of writing this joint letter to our customers.
Click the more link to read the rest of the letter.
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