June 06--CHEYENNE -- A draft master plan for Cheyenne Regional Airport recommends building a new terminal, adding more hangars and improving the main runway.
The draft also said the airport needs to improve the markings painted at the airport that give directions to pilots.
Airport board members heard about the plan Wednesday. They likely will be asked to accept it during a July 10 meeting.
SEH, a consulting firm with offices in Denver and St. Paul, Minn., and Kramer Aerotek Inc. of Boulder, Colo., prepared the master plan.
Representatives from the companies went through the proposal with the board Wednesday. The plan projects what the airport will need through 2031.
The airport has not updated its master plan in about 20 years, Airport Manager Dave Haring said. An airport must have such a plan to build new projects.
The Cheyenne Regional Airport Board plans to build a new terminal with the help of local, state and federal money.
The board is waiting for results of an environmental assessment before it moves to complete all design plans, Haring said in an interview after Wednesday's meeting.
The current terminal does not meet modern needs and its roof has failed, according to information in the master plan.
Work will start in the next few weeks to improve signs and markings at the airport, Haring said. These will be done with special paint made from glass beads so pilots can see the instructions at night.
The airport received an $853,333 grant for a company to paint the markings. The grant includes money to remove rubber from the runways that comes from airplane tires.
The federal government will pay 93.7 percent of the grant's cost, the state will pay 3.75 percent and the airport will pay the rest.
The draft of the master plan recommends improving the condition of the main runway. Haring said the airport has worked on about 50 percent of the runway.
It would mean shutting down the runway for upwards of a year to complete the entire runway project, he said. But the runway's condition isn't that bad, so the airport won't have to deal with that project for about eight years.
Fifty-three percent of the aircraft based at Cheyenne Regional Airport are multi-engine turboprops, Lois Kramer, chief executive officer of Kramer Aerotek Inc. told the board.
Great Lakes Aviation, the Wyoming National Guard and the Wyoming Department of Transportation own these aircraft.
The presence of the aircraft owned by the two agencies and the private company lends stability to the fleet at the airport, the master plan noted.
Copyright 2013 - Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne
