The Soldotna city council will vote on a resolution this week to award a design contract for improvements at the city airport.
Public Works Director Kyle Kornelis says the work is part of a federal grant the city received for upgrades to the airport’s runway.
“Specifically, to take out a hump, or crest, and to improve vertical alignment. (At) either end of the runway, there’s a hump that can obscure the sightlines from one end to the other, so this project will take out a whole bunch of bad material that’s causing cracking, and then also flatten the runway so it’s significantly safer in that regard. And since we’re doing all that work, we’ll also be replacing all the edge lighting and obviously the striping and painting.”
Funding for the seven million dollar project comes courtesy of the Federal Aviation Administration and requires no local match. The design contract is expected to go to Kenai-based Wince-Corthell-Bryson. It’s worth almost $270,000.
“The grant is 100 percent federally funded...which is a huge benefit to the city. It’s something that we probably would not be able to do if we didn’t receive such a large grant from the FAA. We’re pretty excited to get started. We’re just getting going with the design phase. The project is slated to be bid and constructed next summer, and I think (work) will last about 10 months.”
There’s another FAA-funded project happening near the airport on Funny River Road. A seven-thousand square foot building that will hold snow removal equipment for the airport that’s currently housed at the city’s maintenance shop. The council meets Thursday at 6 p.m.
