Rifenburg gives lowest bid for work

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By J.R. Williams-jrwilliams@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- A North Carolina construction firm has emerged as the lowest bidder to rebuild the runway at Winchester Regional Airport, but the four bids unsealed Wednesday must be reviewed before a contract is awarded.

Rifenburg Construction, a Durham, N.C., subsidiary of Troy, N.Y.-based Rifenburg Companies, bid $6,957,576 to complete the work.

That's less than the $7.49 million cost estimated by project engineers to repair 4,500 feet of the 5,500-foot runway and install more sophisticated lighting. The majority of the project will be paid for by Federal Aviation Administration funds.

Perry Engineering Co. Inc. of Winchester was the third-lowest bidder at $7,272,274. Branch Highways Inc. of Roanoke bid $7,270,872, and Chemung Contracting Co. of Mitchells bid $8,269,530.

"It shows ... what they provided us is in the ballpark," said Richard Largent, a member of the Winchester Regional Airport Authority. "To have three bidders that close is a good thing."

The authority will review the bids at a meeting tonight. But they also must be reviewed by Delta Airport Consultants -- which prepared design plans -- Airport Executive Director Renny Manuel, legal staff and the FAA.

That process is expected to take at least three weeks. Construction could begin as soon as mid-July or as late as mid-August. If there are significant delays, work could be pushed to 2012 due to problems with resurfacing in cooler temperatures.

The project will shut the airport down to all but local, light aircraft for 90 days and choke gasoline and jet fuel sales -- one of the facility's primary sources of revenue. But authority members decided in March that alternative construction methods, such as replacing the runway one-half at a time, would have stung worse.

That method would cost more, take 37 extra days to complete and carry essentially the same restrictions.

The airport was granted permission by the FAA to use its taxiway as a temporary runway for aircraft weighing less than 12,500 pounds. Operations would cease completely at night.
"We wanted to try to keep the airport open for the people who are based here," said Paul Anderson, a longtime authority member. "If you have an aircraft here and you can't fly for three months, that's bad. ... Time-wise, we can get it done quicker by doing the whole project than we can by doing half and half."

Authority members said the project sets the stage for future expansion plans -- such as adding a parallel taxiway and adding hangars -- that they hope will lure larger aircraft.
"Without sounding trite, it literally paves the way for the future," Largent said, "because once you get that runway set up and redone, then anything else you have are peripherals.
"If we were able to get another big company with another big jet to come here tomorrow, and then we tear the runway up, we're shooting ourselves in the foot."

The work will correct all existing safety standard violations on the runway, which received its last major upgrade in 1991.