It’s been smooth flying for the on-going rehabilitation of the Great Bend Municipal Airport’s main runway, and the project is proceeding quicker than planned and under budget, airport Manager Martin Miller said.
“They got with it fast,” he said. “Despite the weather and the rain that we’ve had out there, they are two days ahead of schedule.”
The projected finish date was mid-November,” Miller said. But now, the primary contractor, Venture Corporation of Great Bend, hopes to move that forward to maybe September or October.
In April, the City Council Monday night authorized Mayor Joe Andrasek to sign the Great Bend contract with Venture, and work started that month.
There are two main parts to the work. These include the southern 5,500 feet, covered by an Federal Aviation Administration grant, and the northern-most 2,351 feet, covered by a Kansas Department of Transportation grant.
Both of these grants were a 90-10 split with the city covering 10 percent. In all, the city was going to have to cover about $827,000, but cost savings have brought that down to about $782,123.
The project
There are two main parts to the project, Miller said.
The first is the FAA-funded portion, he said. This is the southern 5,500 feet of the runway.
The city received a $6,734,361 FAA grant to cover 90 percent of the work, with the city set to pay $782,000.
So far, the first phase of this is complete. This includes the southern-most 1,800 feet.
This involved digging up the original runway down to bare dirt, including removal of the World War II-era concrete.
Now, there are five inches of asphalt on top of six-inch crushed aggregate base on top of four inch subbase resting on 12 inches of cement mixed in with the sub-base soil.
New wiring and electrical fixtures were also installed, and new markings painted on the surface which has been milled to meet strict FAA smoothness standards.
The initial contract called for the mixing fly-ash with the dirt in the sub-base, Miller said. However, Venture received FAA approval to use cement and this will save the city about $10,000.
Work on the balance of the FAA portion is well underway as well, Miller said.
What’s left
However, Miller said the runway, which dates back to World War II when it was part of the U.S. Army Airforce airfield to train B-29 bomber crews, is 7,851 feet long. This makes it the longest landing strip in central Kansas and among the longest in the state.
In other words, this left the 2,351 feet not covered by the FAA funding. So, the city would have been responsible for 100 percent of the design and reconstruction of the remainder, Miller said.
However, Great Bend received a grant through the KDOT Aviation Division. This will cover 90 percent of the $444,891 total for the additional stretch, with the city covering about $45,000.
Although work has not started on this portion yet, Venture has milled off the surface on the entire runway in preparation for the project.
