Airport Drive (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

Red Deer County awards first contract

Final phase of Red Deer Regional Airport expansion begins: extending Airport Drive

Feb 27, 2024 | 5:07 PM

The final step in the Red Deer Regional Airport expansion project has officially begun.

At their meeting last week, Red Deer County council awarded a contract to reconstruct and extend a portion of Airport Drive.

To recap, Phase 1 of the Airport expansion, beginning in 2022 and completed in July 2023, included the widening of the main runway by 50 feet, widening and strengthening of Taxiway Bravo, and strengthening the main taxiway, Apron 1 in front of the terminal, allowing for the takeoff and landing of 737 planes.

Phase 2 began in September 2023 and focuses on building a passenger service terminal.

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Graham Ingham, Chief Executive Officer of the airport, says the phase is progressing well due to the warm weather and is on budget and on schedule for completion at the end of July this year. He says the walls are up with some enclosures and heating to allow work inside the structure.

Red Deer Regional Airport passenger terminal during beginning stages of construction. (Supplied)

Given the ceasing of discount airline Lynx Air this week, and various others over the past two decades, Ingham says he is still optimistic that passenger airlines will want to invest in Red Deer’s airport.

“To be honest with you, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for the airport for airlines to disappear because at the end of the day, with less competition, obviously prices go up and when ticket prices start going up, airports like Red Deer become more valuable because of our low operating costs,” he said.

“That’s really where we see our niche, is being able to support the airlines and the people that really fly on a very low budget.”

Red Deer Regional Airport passenger terminal as of February 28. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

Phase 3 includes extending Airport Drive and widening Taxiway Alpha.

The County, managing the extension of Airport Drive on behalf of the Airport Authority, has broken this section into two separate phases: Phase 1 consists of the urban portion of the road, from the Fire Hall in Springbrook to the Northeast, and Phase 2 consists of the rural portion from Township Road 372 to C&E Trail.

Phase 3 of Red Deer Regional Airport expansion project: extending Airport Drive. Red Deer County has awarded the contract for the urban portion (phase 1) highlighted in purple, and will soon award the contract for the rural portion (phase 2) in blue on the map. (Red Deer County council agenda February 20 p. 43)

After receiving five bids, the contract for the urban portion of the project was awarded to Carbon Earthworks Ltd. at $4,416,074.45 and is expected to be completed this September.

The contract for the rural portion of Airport Drive is currently out for tender. Ingham expects it to be awarded within the next few weeks and completed by the end of 2025.

“For the longest time, these have been our aspirations, to put the infrastructure in place so we can grow the airport, and now with the infrastructure in place, we’ll really be able to go after new business opportunities,” he said, adding that the completion of Airport Drive will open up 200 acres of prime real estate with the goal of attracting aviation-related businesses like cargo, heavy aircraft maintenance and repair, and aircraft manufacturing.

The Government of Alberta funded the entire Phase 3 of the Airport expansion project with $30 million. Ingham says $18 million has been allocated for the Airport Drive expansion while the remaining $12 million will be used for widening Taxiway Alpha.

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He says the contract for the taxiway has already been awarded to Pidherney’s Inc. and is expected to be completed this September. He states the new taxiway will allow the airport to process aircraft more efficiently during takeoffs and landings.

With the end in sight for the expansion project and for Ingham’s time as CEO, announcing his resignation earlier this month, he says it was a team effort and one he is satisfied and proud to have been a part of.

“I’m just one of a group of people that are very committed, not only to seeing the airport grow, but also for the local community as well to help them diversify and grow the local economy. That includes the Board [of Directors], the City [of Red Deer] and the County as well as the province of Alberta. They have been very supportive of us; they got some high expectations and I think it’s just a matter of time before we deliver on that,” he said.

READ: Red Deer Regional Airport prepares for transition in leadership

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