Hopes are that expansion of the Powell River Airport runway will be completed by the end of the year.
At the Tuesday, April 16, committee of the whole meeting, City of Powell River director of infrastructure Tor Birtig outlined a memo detailing where the city is at with the airport project.
“A lot of people are curious as to what has transpired up there,” said Birtig.
In April 2017, city council approved an airport runway extension project with a total budget of about $1.4 million, said Birtig. The intention was to add a 200-foot gravel strip on both the west and east end of the runway.
“That would assist in increasing the numbers of passengers that Pacific Coastal [Airlines] could carry on their flights,” said Birtig. “At that time, our intention was to bring the slope down from 1.52 per cent to 1.499 per cent, which would also allow the Saab [340 aircraft] to come in.”
Birtig said the city encountered a few limitations with respect to the landfill on the east end of the airport during the design process. In order to close that correctly, the city included the specifications into the project, he added.
The city received two bids, with the lowest being more than $2.5 million and attempted to negotiate with the lowest bidder, but the city could not reduce the bid to get it in line with the budget.
One obstacle to airport expansion is new Transport Canada regulations: what is now known as the fifth edition. Birtig said any changes made to the runway, which currently falls under the fourth edition, would mean the project would have to follow under fifth edition regulations, with some new stipulations.
In August of last year, the city hired WSP Consulting to undertake a gap analysis to determine how many items are missing from where the city stands currently in order to meet the new regulations.
Birtig said the city has to attend to a number of issues, such as an obstacle limitation survey, to make sure there is nothing protruding into the runway approaches.
“We do know, with some of the changes to the runway, we will have a hydro pole encroaching slightly into that surface,” said Birtig. “There are some trees in the surrounding area that would require topping, if not removal. The relocation of various lights on the runway would also be required.”
In November 2018, in discussion with Pacific Coastal, the city found that the airline could potentially resolve the slope issue with the runway by dealing directly with Saab and having some engineering work around their aircraft done in order to allow it to come to Powell River Airport, said Birtig.
According to the Pacific Coastal website, variants of the Saab 340 aircraft can carry 30 or 34 passengers, while the Beechcraft 1900 aircraft currently serving Powell River have a capacity of 19 passengers.
Birtig said the city is working on a two-pronged, phased approach for the runway expansion. The first phase is the design for a 60-metre runway strip extension on the west end. At the same time the city will look at compliance issues with the fifth edition and determine what the cost of those items will be, in hopes of putting out a tender to complete the work before the end of 2019.
“Our hope is to get the initial project out this spring, with completion in September of 2019,” said Birtig.
Birtig said the city has been working hard to ensure bids on required construction fit within the budget. According to Birtig’s report to council, there is nearly $1.9 million available for the airport upgrades.
