Construction is moving forward for the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport; the Aviation Commission also discusses getting customs for international flights
ALBANY, GA -- One year and three bid processes later, construction is finally moving forward on the new terminal at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport.
"It's nice to see this finally come to fruition because it's been a year since we put out our bid the first time and we've gone through three bid processes," says Airport Director Yvette Aehle.
Members of the Albany-Dougherty Aviation Commission say they are ready to see the next phase take off.
"Contractors going to build some mock ups to show all of the building materials so the aviation commission and the airport can see how it all comes together. they're smaller versions of the overall terminal," says Kevin Bingenheimer with The LPA Group Incorporated our of Columbia, South Carolina.
Mock-ups will give airport officials an idea of how the building materials they chose will look together. It also gives builders a way to do a final check throughout the construction process.
"You’ve put them all together and you've established the quality of workmanship that's going to be shown in the final one. so we can see it all through the project to go 'oh here's a joint, here's the right glazing gasket' and check it against that," says Bingenheimer.
He says by June, the empty site for the new terminal won't be so empty anymore.
"They're already out cutting the site, starting to put in the utilities and in a couple of months you're going to start to see the steal go up first," says Bingenheimer
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at site of the new terminal at the airport on Monday at 10 a.m. Construction on the new terminal is expected to be complete by June 2013.
Not only is the airport's facility expanding, airport officials are talking with UPS about expanding their services.
"If we were able to get customs here eventually then maybe we can actually clear customs for some international freight into Albany. That’s just a suggestion, it's not a promise. It's something we're going to look at," says Aehle.
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