A Canadian firm – AECON Construction – has won the bid to undertake major upgrades to the runway and parking apron of the VC Bird International Airport.
ABIA CEO, Wendy Williams, said all this happened over the past week and that it will be some time before actual work starts at the airport.
“We first have to negotiate a contract with the firm and then we should go directly into mobilization and we expected that sometime around the end of June we will see actual construction start at the airport,” she reported.
Williams revealed that the scope of work will involve resurfacing of some areas of the runway while other areas where the wear-and-tear has been determined to be quite significant, this will involve some rebuilding of those areas of the runway.
“The work will involve resurfacing, but we also have to look at some of the deficiencies, and we do have, so we have to do an aeronautics report as well that will highlight all the deficiencies and then we will move into construction around mid-to-late June. However, we will know then what needs to be done before construction starts,” she indicated.
The Canadian firm came in with a bid of US$47 million.
Included in the scope of work are the runway, taxi ways and apron. Work will also be done at Runway #10, the FBO facility that serves private jets.
According to Williams some work has already started to the parking and taxi areas for these aircraft. “We are improving the infrastructure there by placing concrete slaps as part of the overall improvements approved by the Cabinet,” she detailed.
The government has already secured a loan to undertake major upgrades of the VC Bird International Airport. It is expected that a portion of these funds will go towards the extension of the runway at the new Barbuda International Airport.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne wants this to take place simultaneously alongside the major upgrades to VCBIA runway.
