Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Ground Breaking for Maintenance Shop

SIOUX CITY, IA – Sioux Gateway Airport/Col. Bud Day Field will be holding a ground breaking ceremony today, Wednesday, August 4th at 11:00 a.m. for the new Snow Removal Equipment Storage and Maintenance Facility.

The current Airport maintenance facility is a 1942 military wood shop building converted to maintenance offices and a small vehicle maintenance building.  In the early 1960’s, two blue metal buildings were built for larger equipment.  Since the 1960’s the airport equipment has changed to even larger equipment making the building very inefficient.  Maintenance work and vehicle storage is actually done out of several individual buildings scattered around the Airport.  The larger and newer equipment has allowed the Airport maintenance personnel to perform more work with the same number of workers.  This is particularly important during snow removal operations when providing a safe landing facility and keeping the movement areas (runways, taxiways, etc.) open is critical. 

A great deal of work and coordination with the FAA and State DOT Office of Aviation allowed the nearly $1.5 million dollar project to be completed with approximately $1.2 million of federal and $300,000 of state funds, these funds coming from user fees (people using the aviation system), not tax dollars.  The 20,000 square foot main vehicle storage and maintenance area accommodates all the current needs of the Airport, as well as future needs, and the facility includes another 2,400 square feet of operational and maintenance administrative space.

Mead & Hunt completed the building design; Mead & Hunt and Cannon Moss Brygger & Associates will do the construction administration; and Nelson Engineering and Construction will be the general contractor on the project.