BY FRANK DANIELS IV
Staff Writer
Efforts to bring commercial passenger air service have been gaining momentum in Moore County, but the airport will need to upgrade its terminal to meet security requirements.
At the Airport Authority’s recent meeting, board members heard a review of potential methods to retain contractors and plans for renovations.
Consultant Talbert, Bright & Ellington Inc. presented the board with three possible construction delivery methods that vary between a quicker, more expensive process and a slower, less expensive process.
The board did not decide which option to pursue, but Airport Director Rick Cloutier said he wants members ready to give input if the airport is able to secure a contract with a commercial service carrier.
“It’s a very fluid schedule right now, but these are just some concepts,” Cloutier said. “We have to make sure everybody’s thinking about and ready to make some decisions once we have some final information.”
Cloutier expects to have confirmation of whether the airport will receive a federal Small Communities Air Service Development grant by late August. With that $1 million grant closing the gap for a minimum revenue guarantee fund, the Airport Authority would need to begin construction quickly to be ready for its projected spring service takeoff.
Board member Ken Heinlein asked if a six-month construction timeline would be possible to meet that goal.
“Is it difficult? Yes,” Cloutier said. “It takes a lot of work, but it can be done.”
The conversation centered on moving forward with either a design-build contract or a “construction manager-at-risk” contract, as the compressed timeline will likely preclude the traditional design-bid-build process that involves hiring a dedicated professional to create a design for the work, and then subsequently seeking bids from contractors for the construction.
That leads to a competitive process to find the lowest cost contract, but typically takes the longest amount of time.
Jeff McSwain, the Mid-Atlantic lead for Talbert, Bright & Ellington, told board members that the design-build method is typically the fastest, but it can have drawbacks during construction.
“The disadvantage is that making changes as you go can be more expensive,” McSwain said. “And if the owner doesn’t have a really good set of standards and specs for how they want the building to look and a very good vision, the builders can kind of get away from how the owner wants it to look.”
He said the CM-at-risk method would allow for the authority to retain the most control during the process, because both the design and construction firms are brought in together and are contracted directly by the property owner.
“You usually already have your designer, and the contractor gets a lot of input on the design, constructability and issues that could happen during construction,” McSwain said. “So you work a lot of that out during that process. You do pay a premium for CM-at-risk, but owner changes are a lot easier to accommodate during construction because you have both of those companies directly working for you.”
Cloutier said cost would be a serious consideration, because the airport is funding construction itself, adding that potential draft designs reflect a return to the terminal layout used when the airport offered commercial service in the early 2000s.
Board Chair Adam Kiker pointed out the CM-at-risk process may leave room for extended timelines and that the cost of not completing the project would outweigh a higher cost for the construction.
“We could be much more nimble in that,” Kiker said. “This is likely to be a case where speed and quality are going to far outweigh cost.”
The Airport Authority also voted to accept a $2.5 million NC DOT Economic Development Grant for taxi lane infrastructure projects surrounding the construction of two new hangars on airport property.
Contact Frank Daniels IV at (910) 693-2486 or frank@thepilot.com.
