Staff recommends that the City Council approve Amendment 22 with Morrison-Maierle, Inc. for the engineering services associated with the reconstruction and extension of Runway 7/25 in the amount of $348,630.00

On May 5, 2022, the City Council approved a five-year contract with Morrison-Maierle, Inc. (M-M) to provide all pre-design and scope of work activities, survey, construction inspection and oversight, and project closeout for the Aviation and transit Department for all civil engineering work required during the five-year term.  This base contract with M-M is amended each time a new project is undertaken.  Amendment 22 for $348,630 will provide funding for M-M to prepare plans and specifications, provide bidding assistance, construction administration, field observation and project closeout reports for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in order to reconstruct and extend Runway 7/25. 

Runway (RWY) 7/25 is the only crosswind runway at the Airport and was originally built in 1991.  Although this runway was rehabilitated in 2007 by removing and replacing the top 2 inches of asphalt, RWY 7/25 has exceeded its useful life and needs to be replaced.  The existing base course material is over 30 year old recycled asphalt millings that have failed and created large longitudinal and transverse cracks in the runway surface which is a safety hazard for aircraft.  The FAA also identified that the end of RWY 7 intersects the general aviation RWY 10R/28L and no longer meets airfield geometry safety standards.  This project will resolve both of these problems by removing and replacing the asphalt surface full depth including the base course material.  The end of RWY 7 will be relocated so it no longer intersects RWY 10R/28L and the overall length will increase from 5,501 feet to 6,301 feet allowing larger and heavier aircraft to operate on it.  Specifically, 34,385 square yards of runway asphalt will be removed and replaced; 60,000 cubic yards of dirt/rock will be excavated to extend RWY 7; 70,000 cubic yards of fill will be added for the RWY 25 extension and 11,110 square yards of asphalt paving will occur to build a new connecter taxiway.  Additionally, all of the incandescent runway lighting and informational signs will be replaced with all new LED lighting which will utilize less energy and save the Airport money. This project will cost approximate 10 million dollars and the construction work will take place from May to October in 2025.           

The scope of work and associated engineering fees for these services have been reviewed by Ardurra Engineering from Cody, WY and negotiated by staff and will be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  The FAA requires that all engineering fees be reviewed by a second contracted engineering firm to verify that these fees are reasonable, fair and equitable.  Ardurra Engineering was contracted to perform the secondary review, providing staff with an independent cost estimate to negotiate the fees with M-M.

City Council may:

• Approve Amendment 22 for the engineering fees with M-M; or,
• Not Approve Amendment 22 with M-M, delay the project and advise staff on how to proceed

The total cost of the engineering services in Amendment 22 are $348,630.  These fees will be funded 90% with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grant funds and 10% with local match funds.  The FAA's grant funding will be $313,767 and the City's local match will be $34,863.  The local match funds are budgeted and available in the Airport's Capital Account and will be reimbursed at a later date through the Airport's Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) program.  Ultimately, all of these engineering fees are paid for and essentially do not cost the City or Airport anything.