City moving forward on three phases of taxiway project at Regional Airport

Cold Lake is moving ahead with paving and construction work on the Cold Lake Regional Airport’s taxiways to increase commercial opportunities.

City council approved three of the four project phases Tuesday after deciding to keep the $1.2 million they’d allocated to the project in place.

The design is meant to create a taxiway network that will connect the existing hangers to existing apron facility pavements to the runway.

The M.D. of Bonnyville budgeted $500,000 for the project, which led to discussion from council about moving back some of the money for other projects or lowering taxes.

The additional money allowed the city to go ahead with three phases.

Mayor Craig Copeland says the project will have many benefits.

“It’ll allow us to have a commercial space for somebody to come in and operate a commercial business. Phase three is more geared towards commercial avionics. And then for the residents, or for the logistical recreational flyer, there’s going to be a whole bunch of new hangers opened up because the place is hundred percent occupied right now,” said Copeland.

“This project will make it safe for the current users to get into their hangers, and allow future growth for recreation and commercial industry. It’s a pretty exciting project, it’s long overdue. We want to complete the project and then move on to something else.”

City council approved the first three phases of the taxiway project Tuesday.

With the money from the M.D, the total cost is $1.7 million.

The current budget allocated to complete Phase 1 including engineering, construction, and contingencies was $1,200,000. But after competitive bids for the tender and money from the M.D., council chose to keep moving forward on the project.

“You can open up the commercial industry, we feel that that’s an untapped market, that maybe there are some growth opportunities here. You look at all the talent that’s at 4-Wing and we just feel that this will allow us to market that regional airport now to industry to see if they want to locate to Cold Lake,” said Copeland.

The Cold Lake Regional Aerodrome had requested the improvements because the taxiways had become unusable.

CIMA Canada Ltd. was selected to provide engineering and construction services.