Jan. 14—The Ravalli County airport expansion project, which is roughly slated to start within the next two years, will focus funds toward providing additional landing space for firefighting aircrafts during peak fire season — though a timeline for the project is still up in the air.
The Ravalli County Airport Board has applied for a $1 million grant from the Montana Department of Transportation as well as a $86,250 grant, with a 5% matching requirement from the county, from the Federal Aviation Administration. The project is estimated to cost Ravalli County roughly $3.1 million.
An excerpt from the airport's loan grant application states that, "Construction of the apron expansion is needed to provide safe separation of itinerant aircraft and the USFS fire support fleet, consisting of Type I Helicopters ( Chinook, Sky Crane) and Single Engine Air Tanker (SEAT) ( AT-802, AB 690) aircraft, during active fire season and peak summer usage. The Forest Service has voiced serious concern about the lack of space to safely meet their needs and mission."
"It's been going on in the planning process for the last two years. We've been working with the FAA to get grants and funding for it," said Ravalli County Airport Manager Thomas Burge.
Additional funding is being provided by multiple benefactors, including direct funding from Ravalli County as well as the U.S. Forest Service.
"The funding that has been approved is for them to get all the engineering and drawings done," Burge said.
Burge explained some of the aspects of the expansion, emphasizing that the project will prioritize firefighter utilization.
"We're gonna provide some water service there, so they can mix fire retardant on sight," Burge said. "The second part of that expansion project is for overflow parking."
Neither of the grants applied for by Ravalli County have so far been approved and the project is still in the design stage, according to Lance Bowser, engineer at the Robert Peccia and Associates Engineering Firm.
"We're still awaiting those grants and that's not uncommon," Bowser said. "The FAA won't actually issue their grants until construction bids have been obtained. So as of right now we're still working on design completion to get that project out to bid."
Bowser said construction bids should be placed before April 1 of this year and construction could start soon after.
"We may allow for 2025 construction," Bowser said. "It really depends on who that construction's low bidder is and whether or not they have capacity to undertake a paving project in 2025."
Because of Montana's relatively short construction season, if the project doesn't find a compatible construction company before winter of next year, it will be postponed to 2026.
"Hopefully it will be done by 2026," Ravalli County Commissioner Dan Huls told the Ravalli Republic. "There's just so many hoops to jump through and little things that can trip you up."
Huls, who is a member of the Ravalli County Airport Board, said that board members wanted to start construction on the new airport helipads "in the near future" to assist the Forest Service during this summer's fire season.
The project's timeline and completion hinges completely upon the amount of funds available to Ravalli County and, according to Bowser, the project was divided into phases to account for this.
"If funds are available we'll build the whole thing," Bowser said. "In talking with the U.S. Forest Service we addressed only building three quarters of it, as an example, and asking 'would this still be beneficial?' and they said any additional expansion would help us better serve the community and complete their mission."
Project plans will develop as pending grant applications are approved. Ravalli County's $1 million dollar application with MDT will be reviewed on either Feb. 15 or 16, and the FAA application could be approved in July, according to Bowser.
Jackson Kimball is the local government reporter for the Ravalli Republic.
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