The power line lowering project to the east of the Warsaw Municipal Airport is “substantially complete.” The “umbrella-looking bowls” are what AEP calls their new B.O.L.D. (Breakthrough Overhead Line Design) line. They have two transition poles before and after to bring the lines down from the existing higher poles and then back up on the other side. Photo by Nick King, Warsaw Municipal Airport Manager.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Not only is the runway 9-27 obstruction mitigation project (AEP power line lowering) east of the Warsaw Municipal Airport substantially complete, but preliminary figures show it’ll be around $150,000 less than the original estimated cost.

A federal grant is paying for 90% of the approximate $7.6 million project, with the state paying 5% and the remaining 5% local.

CHA Aviation Planning Leader Robert LaFayette told the Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners Tuesday, May 20, “Construction on the runway 9-27 obstruction mitigation project is now substantially complete. … So AEP is working on de-mobilization as we speak. CHA, we’re working to get some of the final as-built elevations for the tower for record information. For the airspace that we did for this project, we do need to make sure that what was built out there is accurate and will still serve the airport the way we intended it to at the beginning of this project.”

In CHA’s contract, he continued, there is some as-built surveying that they need to complete this month and will have for the board at their June meeting. CHA is working with AEP to get that completed.

“As part of the original contract, there was a line item that was called a CIAC (Contributions in Aid of Construction) Gross Up Tax. And, essentially, the FAA was reluctant to put that in the grant. It was in the grant, but we needed to make sure that if we were going to use the dollar value, that we needed to have some backup. So, as part of the construction, AEP does need to use some of that CIAC Gross Up Tax line item. That line item is $586,000. We don’t have the final number for that, that will be a part of the June board meeting, but it’s looking like the total value of the contract is going to be between $150,000 to $180,000 under the original cost estimate for the grant,” LaFayette said.

He said construction estimates for the project were completed four years ago, so “I think the win here is that we’re still coming in under $150,000-plus. The estimate that was done four years ago is a really solid plus for the project to the airport,” he said.

At the June meeting, the board will be presented with final invoices and actions on the project grant to meet the June 25 grant deadline. LaFayette also told the board he messed up at the April meeting and had the board approve March’s invoices twice and failed to provide them with April’s invoices. For this month, he told them he would introduce both April’s and some new invoices for work completed in the past month. He apologized for his error. He requested the board approve voiding the CHA duplicate March invoices for $15,047.99 and $3,421.58, which the board did.

Airport Manager Nick King clarified, “We caught this before sending out the check, so we don’t need to worry about trying to get reimbursement or anything like that.” He said the board was just voiding what they approved in April so the minutes will reflect for Tuesday’s meeting that those invoices were not paid twice.

For the work completed in March and April, LaFayette presented four invoices. Those were for CHA for $9,398.26, with the local share of that being $469.91; $6,581.74 for CHA with the local share being $329.09; $3,542,303.92 for AEP, with the local share being $171,115.20; and $1,217,975.95 for AEP, with the local share being $60,898.80.

Board Vice President John Yingling asked if they’ll be getting more invoices on the project. King said one more, with LaFayette saying it’ll be over $400,000 for AEP.

“So when we say substantially complete, essentially, all of the construction is complete. There will be some additional work for testing of the power lines, so a lot of the additional construction dollars will be allocated from the CIAC Gross Up Tax to construction line items and would be for those items,” LaFayette said.

At the end of the meeting, Kosciusko County Councilman Dave Wolkins said, “I’ve had a hard time explaining to people the power line — a nice looking project and everything, a pretty expensive project — what benefit does that do to the flying community? Is it safety?”

“Purely safety,” King stated. “So as our runway sits, it was an obstruction to our current runway. No expansion, nothing else. It was an obstruction to our current runway. And so we needed to lower those power lines out of the way to remove that obstruction.”

Wolkins asked if anyone’s ever hit the power lines.“No, but I don’t want somebody to hit them either,” King responded. Wolkins asked how he could answer somebody if they say, “if you aren’t a good enough pilot to clear those lines, you shouldn’t be flying.”

King said the easiest way to answer that was, “If you’re taking off to the east and … you hit a goose and lose an engine in a jet, you can not clear those power lines. So right after takeoff, if you’re 50 or 60 feet and you lose an engine for whatever reason, the power lines, where they were, were too high and you would have hit those power lines. So that’s the main reason they had to be lowered.”

Down the road, if the airport gets the money to move CR 100E or build a tunnel under it, Wolkins wanted to know what benefit was gained from that. “Do you get more runway or what?”

King, pointing to a map, said, “It’s a common misconception. So right now, because 100 East is where it is, our runway currently starts here, so we lose 900 feet on a good day. On days like today where it’s instrument weather, this is where our runway starts over here, so we actually lose an additional 1,000 feet. So our 6,003 becomes 4,103. So landing a 70,000-pound aircraft at 140 mph in 4,000 feet in rain or snow, they won’t come to Warsaw. And so, by burying the road, when people hear runway expansion, we want to use all 6,003 feet that we have at the airport now.”

In 10-15 years, he said they’d like to expand the runway to the east further, but the current goal is to get the full 6,000 feet because that’s needed for the aircraft that are based at Warsaw now. King said they need 7,000 feet for the current aircraft population at the airport, but 6,000 feet “at least gets us to 80% of that number; 4,100, that’s why our fuel sales aren’t great because the big jets just can’t operate out of the airport currently.”

With the power line lowering, anything the airport does in the future won’t be affected by them.

Board President Dan Robinson said the lowering of the power lines was the first step. Now that that’s done, “we can pursue the road issue.”

Other Projects

Nathan Lienhart, CHA aviation project manager, presented to the board on the corporate taxi lane E-1 rehabilitation/reconstruction project. He said Phend & Brown is anticipating to be back out there to finish up the remaining work — primarily the seat coating and final paint — on May 31, weather permitting. There will be about a 30-day period where they won’t be able to apply the final markings because of the seal coating material has to cure.

“But the end is near,” he said, and then presented an invoice from CHA for $6,133.50. A state grant is covering the total invoice amount, and the board approved it.

On the taxiway B rehabilitation project, Lienhart said they’re making a lot of progress. Final plans were submitted May 12 and the project is currently out to bid. A bid opening is planned for June 5.

“All of this is in rapid succession in order to meet the end-of-June deadline for having our grant application in to the FAA and INDOT for this project,” he said. The recommendation to award should be presented to the board at their next meeting, pending favorable bids and state approval.

Lienhart then presented a few items for board action, starting with voiding the April board approval of a CHA invoice for $22,385.70, with the local share being $1,119.28, as it was a errant duplicate invoice. He then presented CHA invoices for $59,695.20, with local share being $2,984.76, and for $22,385.70, with local share being $1,119.29, which were both approved by the board.

LaFayette gave a brief report that a meeting between city and county officials on the Airport Overlay District has been scheduled for May 29. “Essentially, (it’s) to go over what Nick has already approved, our proposal on the Airport Overlay District, and working with the city and county on what steps we need to take to implement the new AOD,” he said.

On the runway 9-27 rehabilitation project, Lienhart said it’s being moved forward pretty rapidly. Bids were opened May 6, with Phend & Brown being the lowest of the two bidders. Construction is anticipated to start in mid-June and go through the end of July. He requested the board approve voiding their April approval of a CHA invoice for $28,333.20, which was all a local share, and the board did.

The board did approve two CHA invoices for design work that CHA already completed, and those were for $25,645.60 and $9,222.20.