City to break ground on airport project

The city of Concordia and the Airport Advisory board will host a public ground breaking ceremony for the Runway 18/36 project at Blosser Municipal Airport, on September 11 at 2 p.m.
The ceremony will take place at the main hangar at the airport, and light refreshments will be served.
“We are thrilled to begin this project,” Concordia city manager Amy Lange said. “The vision for a new longer and wider runway began nearly a decade ago with the persistent work by the Airport Advisory Board, city staff and our airport planning consultant. Their diligence allowed us to seize a grant opportunity and bring Runway 18/36 to fruition. We sincerely appreciate the advocacy of our local, state and federal elected officials, as well as the guidance from KDOT Aviation and our regional FAA office. We look forward to working with Benesch and Voght-Parga Construction on yet another successful improvement at Blosser Municipal Airport. This is what teamwork looks like in action.”
In May 2019, Concordia was awarded a $6.95 million grant through the Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program for the construction of a new, longer and wider runway and taxiway rehabilitation/construction at Blosser Municipal Airport. It is a 100 percent reimbursed grant, and now local match is required.
In February of this year, the city was awarded a $567,000 grant from the United States Department of Transportation to construct lighting on the taxiway and to seal the taxiway pavements and joints at the airport.
The Concordia city commission, in May,  approved authorizing city manager Amy Lange to enter into a contract with Vogts-Parga Construction, LLC., Newton, for construction of Runway 18/36, conversion of Runway 17/35 into a parallel taxiway, and associated work at the airport.
Six bids were submitted for the project, which includes the construction of the new runway and the parallel taxiway, lighting, precision approach path indicator lights, wind cone and segmented circle.
Vogts-Parga Construction submitted the low bid of $5,205,308.66.
It is anticipated that the runway project, which addresses several items listed in the 2013 updated Airport Master plan, will be completed in the fall of 2021.