Airport moving closer on numerous construction projects

Katrina Amos, manager for Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, gave updates on a slew of projects on the horizon for the airport Tuesday to Airport Advisory Board members.

The $4.8 million, 105-day project renovation of Taxiway B will be underway later this month. The proposal for the improvements was approved unanimously by Cape Girardeau City Council members last month. It is funded by monies from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Securities Act -- the $2.2 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress in 2020.

Emery Sapp & Son will be tasked with renovating the most used and lowest rated surface at the airport by the Missouri Department of Transportation. The taxiway scored a 28 out of 100 when it was rated by MoDOT as a part of the 2021 Pavement Condition Index.

The construction will repave and reduce the size of the taxiway while still keeping it within requirements for supporting Critical Design Aircraft, such as the Boeing 737. It will also demolish the existing taxiway from Runway 10-28 to the apron.

"It supports aircraft of pretty well every size. So, it's important to keep that infrastructure intact, so that we can continue to service the large aircraft that we've been able to support, you know, since the airport's inception," Amos said last month, just prior to Council members' approval of the proposal.

The improvements will force the closure of the airport's longest runway for 10 days. This will ground commercial travel in that window because the jets are unable to use the shorter runway. The closure is scheduled for Oct. 3 to 13 but Amos said that could change. She has been in constant communication with airlines to update them on a possible alteration of the timeline.

The airport is set to enter the official proposal phase for another construction project, this time for the new terminal. Numerous contractors participated in a pre-proposal meeting for the terminal last week. Official proposals for the project are due Sept. 8.

Design teams will be contacted, interviewed and have proposals scored before they are put before board members Nov. 1. The board will then make a recommendation for the proposal which will hopefully be on the Nov. 7 Council meeting agenda, Amos said.

"It's a little slower than what we had hoped, but we wanted to, you know, give all the construction teams an opportunity to have enough time to put together a solid proposal," she said.

The construction market's oversaturation of projects has slowed the timeline.

Following the proposal deadline for the new terminal, the proposal process for tee hangars will begin at the airport. The hangars are for storing personal aircraft and are at capacity. Currently, 74 aircraft are based at the airport. The airport oversaw the construction of 10 tee hangars in both 2002 and 2014, which, Amos said, were filled almost immediately. Building 26 at one time will give the airport more flexibility, she said.

Also at the meeting, Amos relayed statistics for enplanements at the airport. Cape Girardeau has recorded 6,397 boardings in the first seven months of 2022, more than 2,000 ahead of the 2021 pace. In the month of July alone, however, enplanements are down 31% compared to last year.

"I think a lot of that has to do with the new structure and that we're now paired with Paducah (Kentucky) and Decatur (Illinois)," Amos said.

Amos added there was a sort of pent-up outburst of leisure travel July 2021 because of the pandemic that hasn't occurred this year.

The goal every year is to hit 10,000 enplanements, which would classify Cape Girardeau to as a "primary airport," making it eligible for $1 million in federal airport improvement funding.

Amos said she couldn't be certain, but she thinks the airport will reach 10,000 enplanements this year. Generally, there is an uptick in air travel over the holiday season that can help push the airport over the threshold.

If the airport fails to reach the final goal of 10,000 but reaches more than 8,000 boardings it will still be eligible for $600,000 in funding.