M.D. awards airport electrical upgrade project

By J.W. Schnarr
Taber Times
jwschnarr@tabertimes.com

The Municipal District of Taber council has accepted a bid from a Medicine Hat electrical company to undergo the M.D. of Taber Municipal Airport’s lighting upgrade project.

During their regular meeting on May 12, council heard from a delegation from SMP Engineering regarding the results of a call for bids to take on the project.

“We’ve found out one thing about airports,” quipped Reeve Brian Brewin. “Nothing is simple or cheap.”

Spider Electric Ltd. was the low bid during the tender process with a bid of $362,000. There were three other companies who placed bids, including:

Deltec Power and Control Systems Ltd., $398,475;
DA Electric Ltd., $449,800; and
Armax Electric (2006) Ltd, $500,000.

According to the engineering company overseeing the project, the existing airport system is in a state of disrepair, including some systems being worn out and underground cables with faults that rendered the airfield lighting inoperable.

“You have no night time operations because of it,” said Rob Anthony of SMP Engineering. “The goal of this project was to update all of those systems to the latest Transportation Canada requirements for airfield lighting.”

Anthony said Precision Approach Path Indicator lighting (PAPI) will also be installed at an additional cost of $35,000.

“It will be a lot safer night time landing experience for pilots,” he said.

Total cost of the project is estimated to be in the range of $464,200.

It is estimated project could be completed by the end of October, and that the airport could remain open while work is underway.

Following discussion, council accepted administration’s recommendation to accept the bid from Spider Electric Ltd.