Bids submitted for terminal project at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport

After months of being in a "hurry up and wait mode" at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, there is significant movement on numerous fronts, airport manager Katrina Amos said.

Amos gave an update on the new terminal project to the Airport Advisory Board at its regular monthly meeting.

Five companies submitted bids for the project ahead of the Sept. 8 deadline. Those bids have been reviewed and scored by Amos, Cape Girardeau deputy city manager Molly Mehner and Advisory Board chairman Richard Knote.

"We got some really good proposals and I'm very pleased. Any one of these companies will do a phenomenal job," Amos said, a statement Knote echoed.

Interviews for the contractors and pricing bids will be due Oct. 25. The board will meet Nov. 1 to vote on a recommendation that will be taken to the Cape Girardeau City Council at its first November meeting.

The new 20,000-square-foot terminal will be funded in part from the city's Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act money. Federal stipulations require CARES allocations to be spent by June 2024. Amos is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a plan to use federal dollars first in order to prevent a loss of funds from possible delays, she said.

The airport manager gave an update on one construction investment already underway.

Taxiway Bravo renovations began Sept. 6. The $4.8 million project is also funded by the CARES Act. It's a complete reconstruction of the airport's largest taxiway from runway 10-28 to the apron.

The improvements were decided upon after a pavement index from the Missouri Department of Transportation gave the surface a 28 out of 100.

The 105-day construction efforts will force the closure of the airport's longest runway for 10 days in the middle of October. This will ground jet service in Cape Girardeau for that span, but other operations not requiring runway 10-28 will remain open.

Emery Sapp & Sons are tasked with the undertaking and thus far have worked themselves ahead of schedule, Amos said. The airport manager said she hopes the project will be finished early but because of the unpredictable nature of delays, isn't sure whether that will happen.