Users learned what upgrades are in-store for the Cold Lake Regional Airport.
An open house was held at the Cold Lake airport on Wednesday, Aug. 29, where enhancement plans for the taxiway apron were presented.
"Our consultants completed their original design," explained Azam Khan, general manager of infrastructure services for the City of Cold Lake. "We're here to gather feedback from the users, and to conduct an open house to present what we've done so far to get their opinions on it."
The ongoing process took into account comments from city council and those who attended the open house to adjust the plans.
Mayor of Cold Lake Craig Copeland explained these upgrades won't be completed all at once. They will done in a series of phases to ensure funding is available.
"It's difficult for the city to come in on fiscal year to allocate $3-million or $4-million to complete the entire Cold Lake Regional Airport project," he noted.
Upgrades to the airport will be on the list of things for the city council to discuss while they go over the 2019 budget. The original budget for phase one was $1-million, however, during the presentation it was noted the project is expected to come in at $950,000.
Now that consultation for phase one is over, the consulting firm will adjust their plans before presenting the final draft to council.
Technical director of western community and airports for CIMA+, a engineering consulting firm based out of Edmonton, Geoff Petzold presented the plans for the first phase. He said the feedback they received on the project so far was mainly positive.
"We're re-servicing existing taxiways to a hard surface to allow the users to have a more functioning facility," he explained. "We've developed a taxiway network that will connect the existing hangers to existing apron facility pavements to the runway."
Over 20 residents attended the event to ask questions and voice their thoughts surrounding the presentation.
"We had some good questions from concerned users, and a lot of them left happy. They just wanted to know that their comments, questions, and concerns were being addressed," Petzold expressed, noting that the main concern was drainage after significant rainfalls, and the upgrades will provide a hard service that will allow them to use the facility all year.
The upgrades were a interest for long-time airport property owner Wayne Tokarz, who's had many issues with the current taxiway and apron. He was happy with the plan to update the facility.
"I'm the last hanger in the row. We have issues with the taxiway rutting and plugging up with mud," he explained. "Personally, I've probably spent over $4,000 on my airplanes over the years because of these issues. I've probably lost a lot of flying opportunities as a result of these issues."
Manager of the airport, George Urlacher, was pleasantly surprised by the turnout, and saw the open house as a chance to give everyone the information available on the project.
"My experience is people make comments when they don't know the information, they guess. Give them the information and tell them everything that we're being told and it puts everybody on the same playing field," he said.
The project will be divided into different areas of the airport to be completed over a couple of years. When construction may start is still pending a decision from council.
