FAA Sends $7.9 Million Missoula's Way for Airport Terminal
Missoula's airport will receive nearly $8 million, including the final $5 million in discretionary funds, from the Federal Aviation Administration to build its new terminal.
The funds are from the latest round of Airport Improvement Program grants announced Feb. 19 by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao.
“As a non-hub airport we were able to get up to $20 million of discretionary funds, and we’d already received $15 million” in previous years, airport director Cris Jensen said.
The Airport Improvement Program, or AIP, collects user fees to provide both discretionary and entitlement grants for airport safety and infrastructure programs. The separate grants are often meshed together. Missoula's was among 17 Montana airports to be awarded $26.5 million in both forms. It was one of only a couple of state airports targeted for two grants, one of $1.25 million to fund construction of an apron and one of $6.74 million for the new terminal.
Billings Logan International will get $2.5 million to fund its terminal building expansion and another $200,000 to reconfigure the existing runway.
The Ennis-Big Sky Airport received the next biggest chunk behind Missoula — $5.58 million for apron and taxiway improvements. Bozeman Yellowstone International gets $2.7 million for a number of purposes, including renovation of its existing terminal and taxiway work.
Libby’s was the only other airport in western Montana to receive AIP money this round. It’s getting $300,000 to purchase snow removal equipment.
In Missoula, above-ground steel construction on what’s being called the “South Paw” began in early January. The new terminal, being built by Martel Construction, is expected to take another two years to complete. Jensen said the estimated price tag has dropped from $68 million to “$64 million and change,” still with a 10% contingency built in.
Missoula received Airport Improvement Program grants totaling $8.7 million and $9.2 million in the past two years to help with the terminal project.
“We continue to work on the funding jigsaw puzzle,” Jensen told the Airport Authority board at its February meeting this week. “We met with the FAA on Feb. 13 and funding was one of the primary topics of discussion.”
He was at that meeting in Reno, Nevada, when he received calls from both Montana U.S. senators, Jon Tester and Steve Daines, informing him of the $5 million in discretionary funding.
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