LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe-Document

LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic

October 20, 2000, Friday SUNRISE EDITION

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 35;

LENGTH: 391 words

HEADLINE: Airport Authority Ready To Let Expansion Contracts

BYLINE: JOHN TAYLOR

SOURCE: WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

BODY:
The Omaha Airport Authority board is expected to award the first contracts in December for the most expensive construction project in Eppley Airfield's history, an $ 88 million extension of an existing runway.

The project calls for extending a 4,000-foot-long runway now used by smaller, general aviation aircraft to 8,500 feet.

The longer runway would be able to accommodate the largest airline aircraft, said Don Smithey, the authority's executive director. Eppley has two main runways that commercial jets now use - one 9,500 feet long and the other 8,150 feet long. The general aviation runway is parallel to the longer runway.

The additional runway is needed, Smithey said, to help Eppley cope with the growth expected both in passengers and in landings and takeoffs.

Over the next 11 years, passenger traffic is expected to rise 126 percent, while landings and takeoffs are forecast to grow more than 30 percent.

Ralph Holtmann, director of planning and engineering services, outlined the project to the authority board Thursday.

Work on the first and second phases of the project - extending the runway to 5,000 feet and building taxiways - is expected to cost $ 28.6 million and to be completed in 2002, he said.

The third phase would extend the runway to 7,000 feet, would cost $ 15.4 million and be finished in 2003.

The final extension, to 8,500 feet, would cost $ 19.5 million, and be completed in 2004.

Taxiways, an instrument landing system and other facilities would add another $ 24.5 million.

Of the estimated $ 88 million, Holtmann said, 75 percent, or $ 66 million, is expected to come from the federal aviation trust fund administered by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The fund, created in 1970, raises grant money through taxes on jet fuel, airline tickets and air freight.

The remainder of the construction costs will come from authority earnings; the agency can't levy taxes on its own.

Formal announcement of the FAA funding is expected to come within six weeks.(7)

Besides preparing Eppley for anticipated growth, Smithey said, a cost-benefit analysis of the project concluded that for every $ 1 that the authority invests in the runway project, someone will save $ 7 - in reducing airline delays and fuel costs, among other things.

LOAD-DATE: October 20, 2000