News Photo by Julie Goldberg The current passenger terminal at Alpena County Regional Airport, seen in this photo taken Tuesday, has only about another year of operation until it is replaced by a new terminal. It is expected that construction of a new, $11.5 million terminal will begin next week. It will take a little over a year to complete.

ALPENA — Construction of the new terminal at Alpena County Regional Airport could begin early next week. The needed equipment is already on-site and crews are standing at the ready to begin.

Airport Manager Steve Smigelski said there is a pre-construction meeting slated for Monday and he said it is possible lead consultancy firm RS&H and the Federal Aviation Administration could give the green light for the work to commence.

“Everyone is ready to go and it’s just a matter of getting the Notice to Proceed from FAA, which could happen at the meeting or sometime next week,” Smigelski said.

Once construction begins, five power poles need to be taken down and then an old structure needs to be removed. Smigelski said footings need to be poured and there is a chance more work could be done before winter arrives in full force.

“They want to demo the old hangar as soon as possible and pour the footings, but our construction company, Spence Brothers, said they hope to get the roof and walls up before snow arrives,” Smigelski said. “That seems a little ambitious to me, but I hope they are right. That would allow them to do interior work during the winter.”

Even if the $11.5 million project begins ahead of schedule, Smigelski said the original timeline of 13 to 14 months still stands.

The project was made possible because of a $9.4 million grant from FAA, a $2.4 million commitment from Alpena County, and $234,650 in money from the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Smigelski said there could also be another part of the project that could be bumped up some. He said that, once construction begins, the east section of the longterm parking lot will be closed to accommodate the trucks and dozers for the project. Now, it’s possible, Smigelski said, that work originally scheduled for the project’s end could be done sooner to accommodate travelers.

“The parking lot expansion was supposed be done in the fourth phase, but it could be done in phase one with gravel so parking is available to folks,” he said. “Then it would be completed closer to when the terminal is ready to open.”

Runway improvements won’t begin until the spring, Smigelski said. He said some taxiway modifications will be done, as well as updates to the draining system.

“This whole place is going to be ripped up for a year,” he said.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com or 989-358-5689. Follow Steve on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.