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Work on taxiway B at the Warsaw Municipal Airport will be completed in three phases over about three months.
CHA Consulting Inc. Section Manager Mary Kerstein told the Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners Wednesday that they received the work schedule from Phend & Brown.
The tentative schedule for the north-south taxiway project has phase I (southern third) going from July 27 to Aug. 22; phase II (middle third), Aug. 24 to Sept. 16; and phase III (northern third), Sept. 17 to Oct. 10. During the work, there will be constant access to the apron and to the terminal, she said.
“One thing that we are working with (Airport Manager) Nick (King) and Phend & Brown on is the potential to actually have the phase I work - so that was July 27 to Aug. 22 - and the runway 9-27 phase II work done at the same time. So, we’re still kind of working through that with Nick and with Brent. There is a potential that this could occur. We’re in the process of finalizing that this week,” Kerstein stated.
Runway 9-27 phase II is the resurfacing of the center section of the east-west runway. Phase I was completed in 2025, and phase III will be done in 2027. The county contributed toward phases I and II of the runway project, so the county is helping the airport resurface the main runway.
King said they all concurred “at the end of phase I, when we’re actually doing the final mill and fill, after the full-depth cracks are repaired, there are a few days where we will need to close 9-27 because the equipment is going to be in the safety area of 9-27, and so the thought is: If we’re going to have to close 9-27 while we’re doing that mill and fill work, why don’t we take the full-depth crack repair equipment - because they’re two separate teams - over to the runway and start the runway project while they’re finishing phase I of the taxiway and it should shave down a little bit of time that the main runway is closed, and we’ll be able to still fit both projects in with this construction cycle.”
He said they’re working through that, and a portion of that is working with the corporate tenants on field.
“We want to make sure that we’re respectful of them being able to get in and out if they have to get out or in position somewhere else,” King said. “We want to be as accommodating as possible.”
The other benefit of doing the projects this way, he continued, is while it pushes out the taxiway project a few weeks on the back end where they might finish a little later than originally scheduled, it’ll actually help the crop dusters.
“They operate out of the northern end of the field. That’s where their chemical tanks and their water storage and everything else is located,” King explained. “And by doing phase I, then the runway project, then phase II and III, it just gives them a couple more weeks and they should be complete with all of their work by the time we get up to where it would be affecting their work.”
Kerstein said an inspector will be out on site, so having two projects going on at the same time will help with costs as well.
She also presented a CHA invoice for $4,360.16, with the local share being $109, and requested Board President Dan Robinson’s signature. Both were approved.
Kerstein also reported on the May 20 bid opening for the runway 9-27 project. The Board of Aviation Commissioners didn’t have a meeting in June.
Phend & Brown was the low bidder for the base bid at $912,813.80, while the bid from Brooks Construction Co. Inc. was $981,414.70. The engineer’s estimate was $1,026,260. However, Brooks was the lowest bidder for alternate 1 at $126,371.20 while Phend & Brown’s bid was $134,024. The engineer’s estimate for the alternate was $156,810.
Alternate 1 “is actually changing the mill depth from, in the base bid it’s 2 inches, and in the alternate 1 it’s 3 inches,” she said. “We proposed to do that based off of the existing conditions that we were finding out there with phase I last year during construction. We noticed that we weren’t getting through that top lift of asphalt, so there was kind of a thin layer of asphalt still attached on the existing milled surface. So we thought it would be cleaner to get through that lift so we proposed this 3-inch option.”
The project is locally funded. Kerstein presented a CHA invoice for $6,527.08, which the board approved.
She then presented the last pay application from Phend & Brown for $39,641.25 for last year’s project, which the board approved.
The last motion she requested from the board was to contract with Phend & Brown for phase II. She said she and King were in favor of awarding the bid alternate 1 to Phend & Brown, as well as the base bid.
King stated, “So last year when we did the phase I project, I don’t know that they ever calculated an actual area, but there were several areas - when we did the 2-inch mill - there was a quarter to three-eighths of an inch of asphalt left and we were really worried about delamination. Phend & Brown was able to go through with their construction crew and use their blade to scrape most of it off and get most of that off. But looking at it, it was a large enough of an area that we elected to have the bid alternate where we could do the 3-inch mill. That way we make sure we get through that entire layer and have a really clean surface for when we do this mill and fill this year.”
He said last year’s bids came in well under what they budgeted for, so they did have some significant cost savings that they’ll be able to use to cover the extra and mill and fill this year. In talking with CHA, King said they recommend doing alternate 1, but it was up to the board’s discretion.
Board member Ernie Wiggins said it was his opinion they go ahead and do alternate 1 with the base bid, both by Phend & Brown, since collectively they’ll be cheaper. King said Phend & Brown will do both as they can’t split the project.
The board approved the base bid plus alternate 1 from Phend & Brown for $1,046,837.80.
The final bit of business from Kerstein was for taxiway A. She said CHA was still finalizing the report on that, but presented an invoice for $3,358.96, with the local share being $83.97, and a request for Robinson’s signature, which was OK’d.
The board also gave their approval for Robinson to sign the construction agreement with Phend & Brown for runway 9-27, pending the attorney’s approval of the contract.
In other business:
• King reported they’re still doing very good on fuel sales, and are up 30,000 and some gallons in Jet A and about 2,500 gallons in AV gas from where they were last year. They’re about to hit their busy season.
“Crop dusting is going to start up here in the next week or two,” he said.
• King reported the self-serve gas tank at the airport is complete and he’s hoping they’ll take delivery in two to three weeks of that tank. They’re working with Rebel Services, a contractor who will be installing and certifying the tank, and D&D Electric will install the electrical and communication lines. He hopes that by mid August they’ll be up and running on it.
• Bryan Stumpf, community development studio lead with HWC Engineering, gave an update on the Airport Overlay District (AOD). He said he hopes the board will be able to adopt the AOD at their next meeting.
• The board approved for Morrison Aviation to place business signs on the east, west and south sides of his hangar. King said they all are within the airport’s approved sign guidelines.
Morrison Aviation also requested the board consider allowing him to put a sign along the ramp fence next to the terminal building. However, while the board didn’t have any problems with signs on the building, they wanted King to draft a policy regarding signs along other locations.
• The board approved a one-year land lease with Jordan Waters for the T hangar at 6G. After the one-year term, the lease goes month by month.
• The next meeting will be at 5:15 p.m. Aug. 11 at the Warsaw Police Department Training Center.
