South Lewis County Airport Renovations to Begin This Spring

Renovations to the South Lewis County Airport are projected to be finished by the end of the year, according to county officials. 

The Lewis County Board of Commissioners approved a motion in Monday’s business meeting to award the contract for the South Lewis County Airport Improvements Project to Centralia-based Sterling Breen Crushing. The company submitted a $3.04 million bid, which was the lowest of eight bids submitted to the county for the project.

“This is a major step forward for the Lewis County airports,” Lewis County Airport System Manager John Roe said during the meeting. “For Toledo, it’s going to change the look of the airport, everything we’re doing down there is an advance over what we’ve seen going on for the last eight years. That’s an old airport, but the infrastructure that we’re bringing up to speed now is going to really just put us out ahead.”

Lewis County Director of Public Works Josh Metcalf said following the meeting that the renovations will include widening and repaving the airport’s taxiway, new striping for the taxiway and runway, new lighting for the approach, runway and taxiway, new signing, as well as some “general vegetation removal,” such as the removal of trees near the runway.

Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin on May 1, in an effort to allow the soil more time to dry.  

“The two big items are the redoing all the lighting and the taxiway widening,” Metcalf said. 

Sterling Breen Crushing’s $3.04 million bid came in just below the roughly $3.2 million budget for the project. According to Metcalf, the budget is based upon a grant the county received from the Federal Aviation Administration. 

He added that there is a 15 percent match that comes along with the grant, half of which is matched by the county, while the over half is covered by a Washington State Department of Transportation Aviation grant.

“The county will meet their match through some of the work that our researchers will do in Public Works, as well as some of the cost of the construction,” Metcalf said. “The majority of the FAA and the WSDOT grant will cover the actual construction costs.”

The contract was originally awarded to another bidder in the Fall of 2017, but was put on hold due to some engineering revisions and never picked back up. The company looked to raise the price of the project when Metcalf re-opened the South Lewis County Airport Improvement Project after airports fell under public works in 2018. The contract was ultimately terminated. 

Metcalf said that the construction was nearing the county’s deadline for it to be completed. 

“The construction needs to be complete this year and closed out by March of 2021,” Metcalf said. “So, we really need to have the construction done this year, get through the close-out process.”

Given the urgent nature of the project, Metcalf said some of the work will need to be completed during the day, which would cause closures of the airport. 

“We’ll have some intermittent closures,” Metcalf said. 

With the contract set to be re-awarded and construction imminent, Lewis County Commissioner Gary Stamper feels the renovations will further the impact of airports in the county. 

“I think it (the project) completes the loop,” Stamper said following the meeting. “Especially because we had the Packwood done a couple of years ago and now we’re going to finish up the Toledo, you know, and with the properties and the economic development that is coming into the county, it’s part of the vision, I believe, for Lewis County and the airports are obviously a big part of that.”

He added by calling the renovations “the first step,” in the renovations of the South Lewis County Airport.

“We’ve always had this asset (South Lewis County Airport), for many years,” Stamper said. “Now I think with the way things, not only technology but with the whole culture of economic development has changed, I think, down the line, it’s going to play a huge role in that and be a real benefit for Lewis County.”