In a move that should surprise no one, North Battleford city council has voted to proceed with a scaled-down runway rehabilitation at Cameron McIntosh Airport.
Council voted Monday to continue with the planned four-year runway resurfacing project, except it will now require a fifth year to complete.
City officials had previously indicated to reporters they would be going ahead, despite losing out on their application for a Community Airport Partnership capital grant from the province. Had the grant been approved, the city and province would have cost-shared for $550,000 of work in 2019.
Instead, the scope of the project has been pared back significantly. According to a memo from city engineer Bob Anthony circulated at council, the proposal now is to resurface only one side of the runway and perform paint marking work at an estimated cost of $290,000.
This is $15,000 more than the $275,000 the city had already budgeted for their share of this year’s work. The city will reallocate $15,000 that had been budgeted for an airport study to make up that remaining amount; the study itself has been put off to a future date.
The paint marking is required by Transport Canada to keep the airport operational and would cost $65,000 on its own. The remainder of the project will be deferred to 2020 and be completed that year.
As well, a change order will be made to the 2019 Capital Works Contract 3 - Roadways to reduce the scope of work included in that contract to take into account the new numbers. That contract was awarded to K&S Asphalt Services Ltd. at the previous meeting.
