At the Aug. 25 Fulton City Council meeting, council members passed two resolutions to enter agreements with two companies regarding the reconstruction of Runway 6-24 at the Elton Hensley Memorial Airport.
The first resolution adopted was to enter an agreement with Crawford, Murphy and Tilley for consulting and inspection services for the Runway 6-24 reconstruction for $163,039.
Before all eight council members approved the resolution, Fulton Director of Administration Bill Johnson explained to council members why an independent cost analysis was required by the Missouri Department of Transportation for the proposed agreement.
"Because it's a consulting agreement for engineering services at the airport, MoDOT required another engineering firm to review their contract and scope of services and the fees schedule accessed against it to make sure that it was within line," Johnson said.
The second resolution that passed, with all members of the council voting in favor, awarded a bid for the project to the general contractor with the low base bid.
The city received three bids for the reconstruction project, according to interim Fulton City Engineer Kyle Bruemmer's Aug. 18 memo to Fulton Mayor LeRoy Benton. Bruemmer explained that each bid included a base bid, which included an option for concrete or asphalt for the runway construction, and two alternates - the first involved making improvements to the electrical system to light the runway, and the second proposed adding turnarounds at both ends of the runway.
During bid evaluations, Bruemmer only recommended the low base bid, about $1.67 million, and lighting alternative - $222,627 - be awarded to Emery Sapp & Sons Inc. for total of about $1.89 million. Thus, the project's total cost, including the consulting services, is projected to be about $2.06 million.
A MoDOT and FAA block grant will provide 90 percent of the funding for this project, with the city providing the remaining 10 percent.
The Elton Hensley Memorial Airport has three runways, each with a different surface - one grass, one asphalt and one concrete. According to the city of Fulton's website, the general aviation airport remains busy with "more than 15,000 combined local and transient operations annually."