Barnstable airport agrees to $19.4M contract
By Patrick Cassidy
pcassidy@capecodonline.com
July 13, 2010
HYANNIS ? Takeoff.
Barnstable Municipal Airport officials have agreed to a $19.4 million contract to build a long-awaited new terminal and air traffic control tower.
The airport's seven commissioners agreed at a special meeting Thursday to the contract with Boston-based Suffolk Construction, airport Manager Roland "Bud" Breault said yesterday.
"This was sort of a landmark decision," he said of the contract.
Breault was at work early yesterday making a list of things to do next, he said. "You don't want to let the euphoria get to you," he said.
There are still several steps that need to be taken before the project can be completed. The Cape Cod Commission must formally sign off on the project. A development agreement between the planning and regulatory agency, the airport, and the town must be finalized, Breault said.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the tower work is scheduled for Monday.
The terminal project has been in the works for a decade and has faced repeated delays.
When Breault became airport manager a year ago, he found the design plans for the terminal running $4 million to $6 million over budget. The town of Barnstable had also previously balked at backing a bond for the project until grant money was guaranteed and other concerns were alleviated.
The town had raised a list of 19 concerns, all of which have been addressed, said Barnstable Town Manager John Klimm.
"The entire (town) council and staff strongly support the terminal construction project," he said.
Although the new terminal was initially expected to top 55,000 square feet, it was scaled back to about 35,000 after the overruns were eliminated. Barnstable Town Council approved the bonding in April.
The signed construction contract marked "the culmination of years of determined work by a lot of people to deliver a first-class regional airport for Cape Cod," airport commission chairman Daniel Santos said in a prepared statement.
The contract price is $1.2 million less than estimates, Breault said. About $500,000 of the savings will be spent on baggage carousels, plantings and landscape irrigation that was eliminated from the plans, he said.
The remainder will either be spent on unexpected expenses, returned to the airport's reserve fund or used for additional improvements, he said.
The Aeronautics Division of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation is expected to approve a $13.1 million grant for the terminal project early next month.
The remaining cost of the project will come from federal and state grants, the town-backed bond and airport reserves.
The total cost of the new terminal will be about $20 million, Breault said. The cost of the tower will be about $6.7 million, he said.
Work on the terminal is scheduled to begin before Labor Day and take about a year.
Suffolk Construction just completed work on Terminal E at Boston's Logan International Airport and was recently awarded $250 million of additional work at the state's busiest airport, said Jeff Gouveia, the construction firm's chief operating officer.
"There's obviously a very high level of security," Gouveia said of construction jobs at airports.
Suffolk is trained and experienced with working at airports where construction typically continues around the use of a facility, he said.
"It can be a challenge during construction because there are going to be temporary facilities," said Cape Air president Dan Wolf.
But, Wolf said, he expects that everyone will be able to work around the construction.
"I think in the long term it's going to be a huge improvement," he said.
Wolf, who has flown in and out of the Hyannis airport for 33 years, said he especially looked forward to the new air traffic control tower. "It's going to be neat to see that."
Barnstable Municipal Airport is the third busiest in the state, trailing Logan and Nantucket Memorial Airport.
