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3 options offered to expand airport

Business leaders hear solutions, but nothing is cheap
A consultant has come up with three options to expand the Durango-La Plata County Airport. The estimated costs range from $134 million to $141 million. How much the expansion would cost county taxpayers remains to be seen.

The demands on the Durango-La Plata County Airport require improvements even if growth stopped now, Aviation Director Kip Turner told members of a business coalition Tuesday.

“We need to protect what we have,” Turner said in addressing 60 to 70 members of the La Plata County Economic Development Alliance. “We have three options, but there’s not a cheap one among them.”

Turner cited increasing use of the airport, which is in line to reach 200,000 enplanements this year. Annual growth is expected to continue 1 to 2 percent into the future, he said.

DRO, as the airport is labeled in the industry, can be considered a regional facility, Turner said. The closest similar facility is four hours away in Albuquerque.

It also would be hard to find an airport its size serving three hubs such as Dallas, Denver and Phoenix, he said.

The airport makes a $300 million contribution to the economy annually, Turner said.

But DRO is failing by all industry standards, Turner said. The terminal building at 41,000 square feet is only half the size needed for adequate elbow room, he said. Parking also is inadequate.

A consultant has come up with three airport expansion options with two timetables each. The first phase of each would satisfy projected growth for 10 years. The second phase would cover 20 years, or when enplanements reach 400,000 annually.

The first option includes remodeling the existing terminal and increasing parking. Remodeling would cost $83.2 million in the initial phase and $58.2 million in the second phase, including $25 million for a parking structure. The total cost would be $141.4 million.

Option No. 2 calls for gutting and rebuilding the structure next to the current terminal at a cost of $78.8 million in the first phase. Expansion of the terminal and the parking structure would cost $54.8 million, pushing the grand total to $133.6 million.

The first two options would keep the terminal on the west side of the runway.

In the third option, the terminal and all infrastructure would be built on the east side of the runway, costing $114.7 million in the first phase and $19.6 million in the second phase for an overall cost of $134.3 million.

Several members of the audience Tuesday tried to pin down what the cost to local taxpayers would be, but Turner wouldn’t be cornered.

As close as he came was to say that Duluth, Minnesota, paid $37 million in a similar situation.

The Federal Aviation Administration won’t pay for terminals, but will pay for other work, Turner said. Otherwise, he is looking at various sources, including the FAA, the Colorado Department of Transportation’s aviation division and other partners.

Voters could be asked in November to pay part of the debt for the first phase to expand the airport.

City councilors and county commissioners are supposed to choose an option in January.

daler@durangoherald.com

Apr 29, 2016
Kip Turner accepts Grand Junction airport job


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