"Major terminal projects under way at Tulsa, Okla., airport"

Friday, July 9, 2004

Major terminal projects under way at Tulsa, Okla., airport
Tulsa (OK) World


Construction has begun on $12.88 million in passenger terminal projects
-- work that could keep Tulsa International Airport looking like a
hard-hat zone until next May, airport engineers say.

Jeff Hough, deputy airport director of engineering and facilities,
advised Tulsa Airport Authority trustees that several high-profile
security and renovation projects will get under way in the next few
months.

The 13-foot-tall, 56-foot-wide mural, "The Panorama of Petroleum," that
dominates the upper level of the center terminal will be moved 100 feet
south and turned 180 degrees to face north, Hough said.

J.L. Walker Construction Inc. of Oklahoma City was awarded the mural
relocation contract at a cost of $128,758.

The former Green Country Cafe in the upper level of the center terminal
will be closed within a few weeks, Hough said. Asbestos will be removed
from the restaurant area, and old walls and fixtures gutted, to permit
installation of security checkpoints and Explosives Detection System
machines.

Dan Pearson, managing director of Benham Cos. Inc., said temporary food
carts will replace the restaurant from the end of July through New
Year's Day.

"The airport grand opening is scheduled for Jan. 15," Pearson said.

Included in the projects are construction of new food, beverage and gift
shops along a new concession boulevard that extends from beyond security
checkpoints to the east and west concourses; terminal office renovations
and relocations; terminal electrical upgrades; and interior
improvements, Pearson said.

Hough said alternating lanes of the Gilcrease Expressway as well as
airport entrances will be temporarily closed into September.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is reconstructing 2.7 miles of
the expressway -- Oklahoma 11 -- between Interstate 244 and Sheridan
Road at a cost of $3.3 million, said Paul Green, assistant division
engineer for construction of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

Trustees also entered into a supplemental agreement with Cinnabar
Service Company Inc. of Tulsa in an amount not to exceed $4.96 million
to proceed with the next phase of an aircraft noise abatement program.

Under the agreement, Cinnabar, which is managing the noise program for
the Airport Authority, will negotiate with more than 140 property owners
-- mostly south of the airport -- for aviation flyover easements.

Targeting about 1,700 properties, the current noise program has
completed sound insulation, easement purchases or sales assistance
agreements with 487 property owners at a cost of $33.2 million, said Bob
Parmele Jr., Cinnabar president.

In the program, the airport authority has offered to insulate and
sound-proof homes, purchase flyover easements or make up the difference
between sales prices and the market prices of homes.

The program evolved out of the Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Act
of 1979. The legislation directed the Federal Aviation Administration to
establish a single system of measuring aircraft noise and a single
system for determining the exposure of individuals to noise in the
vicinity of airports.

The FAA established a 24-hour day-night average noise threshold of 65
decibels at which property owners qualify for federal assistance.

When the current program began in 2000, construction costs of insulating
walls, ceilings, windows and doors, as well as installation of new
heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems, were $20,000 per
house.

Actual construction costs since then are $30,000 to $35,000, Hough said.
Program administration, preparing bidding packages, design and
construction inspection bring per-home sound insulation costs to
$42,790, he said.

Those costs, in turn, could escalate the original $40 million cost of
the current program beyond $70 million, Hough said.

"The early estimates were before we had construction under way," Hough
said. "Costs have gone up a little more than expected. These are old
homes, and when you uncover them you find all sorts of things."

Hough said airport staff anticipate receiving $15 million a year from
the FAA in each of the next three years for the noise program.


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