Rima Krisst for Fly Santa Fe
While private pilots are the target audience, the Airplane Owners and Pilots Association is putting on public events too.
City officials have touted an expansion and upgrade project at the Santa Fe Regional Airport for years.
Now, by surprise, they have the money to make it happen.
On June 12, the City Council made it official, voting through the consent agenda to push an extra $1 million to the Albuquerque-based architecture firm that’s overseeing the project, parts of which already are under construction.
Flyers can expect a new terminal, repaired runways and more parking once the project is completed.
The plans for the airport expansion were headed to the Santa Fe City Council almost two years ago to the day, but without knowing when exactly the funding for it would come through.
“We never expected to get funded for this amount of capital improvements this year,” city Public Works Director Regina Wheeler tells SFR via email.
But that's exactly what happened when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a capital improvements bill in March that funneled $9.5 million to the airport project. Add that to another $10 million coming in from other federal and state money streams over the next 19 months, and the city is flush with cash to fix up the sleepy little airport on the edge of the desert.
Molzen Corbin & Associates was given a slice of that pie at the June 12 council meeting, when councilors approved a request to nearly double the firm’s contract amount.
The contract for “Architect/Engineering services, along with project management, and construction oversite [sic] of Airport development projects” was originally signed in September 2018 for an annual allowance of $250,000 for a total of $1,000,000 over the four-year contract, which is set to expire in September 2022.
In 2018, only $10,000 had been spent—on a program required by federal grants to ensure that small businesses with a net worth of less than $1 million have access to federally funded projects.
The $9.5 million approved by the Legislature earlier this year cleared the way for Molzen Corbin’s contract increase and will allow more work on the airport, according to Airport Manager Mark Baca.
“More work for more money,” Wheeler tells SFR via email, though she clarifies that it is still going to be at least four years before the airport is completed.
Molzen Corbin now has a total of $1,947,455 to work with. The contract lays out eight primary tasks: Ensure that small business get in on the action, and oversee the design and construction “immediately” on terminal building improvements, parking lot improvements and electrical and taxiway upgrades.
Work on the airport is underway, including phase one of the build-out on a new terminal and patching up one of the taxiways.
Within the next year, travelers can expect to see improvements to the parking lot, more available parking and an automated parking system that makes it easier for people to pay and “capture some revenue,” which will go to the airport, Baca tells SFR.
The next improvements to be seen in 2019 and 2020 will be complete reconstruction of two taxiways that have “failing” pavement and a design for the terminal.
“Depending on the design and construction for the terminal, we’re hoping to kick that off here pretty soon, designing the terminal and hopefully by mid-2020 starting construction,” Baca tells SFR.
The terminal will be expanded south and Baca is “hopeful” to get an additional 10,000 square feet because, as he puts it, “it gets a little tight in there.” (To say the least.)
