The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
A brief stint at aviation rehab isn’t cheap
By Adam Broderick
The runway and taxiway at the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport needs a serious makeover. At a county commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday, June 2, county manager Matthew Birnie signed a grant application requesting that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) supply funds for the project, which is expected to cost $1.4 million.
According to the application, the project will benefit the airport by improving the airport’s primary taxiway and runway safety by improving grading and pavement conditions.
Airport manager Rick Lamport says the project will consist of the rehabilitation of the west part of Taxiway A between Taxiways A1 and A3, plus grading improvements to a portion of the Runway 6 extended safety area.
Of the $1.4 million project total cost, project inspection will cost $120,000, the architectural engineer fees total $95,000, construction itself will cost $1,180,000, and administration expenses will be $5,000. The county and the state will each put up $70,000 and the county will use $1,260,000 from the FAA, money that Lamport says has already been approved as part of the FAA’s annual entitlements for AIP [Airport Improvement Program] eligible projects.
“The money has already been allocated for us. We just need to get it, and this application explains how we plan to use it. The only way we wouldn’t get the funding is if we failed to apply for it, or if we carried fewer than 10,000 passengers per year,” he said.
“Those AIP funds are airport entitlements,” Lamport continued. “We are entitled to those funds because we carry more than 10,000 annual passengers, making us a ‘primary non-hub airport.’ We get up to $1 million per year, and that’s not taxpayer money. Those funds are generated totally in the industry, from things like taxes on airline tickets, cargo, etc. All the money goes back to the airport master plan.”
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) was originally going to fund part of the project but has been facing financial troubles that have hindered projects statewide. Lamport explained that CDOT received less money in fuel taxes than they had predicted this year, since nobody expected the price of fuel to drop so much, so CDOT has had issues matching portions of AIP programs. All Colorado airports have faced challenges getting projects off the ground, not just in Gunnison, and CDOT had to declare at the beginning of the year that they would not be able to fund their normal share of projects.
So anyone expecting much in funds from CDOT had to hold off until a plan was made. CDOT eventually took out a loan, but by then it was too late to bid because many contractors already had projects lined up for the summer.
“Bids went out later than desired and therefore competitive pricing may not occur,” Lamport said. “This may result in no award for this year and a rebid again next year.”
Regardless, contractor bids were being taken as of May 14 and responses were due by June 17 at 2 p.m. If bids did not come in low enough, the airport will put the project off until next year. Assuming bids came in at an affordable rate, the project is expected to take 30 days to complete. Work will be conducted out of scheduled air carrier times, there will be no runway closures, and the project will not interfere with air travel.
