Yuma International Airport (Yuma, AZ) officials announced during its regular monthly board of directors meeting the award of a $2.1M project to local contractor, DPE Construction, Inc. for the rehabilitation of an existing asphalt apron located in the Southwest portion of the airport’s Defense Contractor Complex adjacent to Taxiway F and the airport’s jet blast deflector.
The project with a total cost of $2.4M has been under design since May of 2015. Gladys Wiggins, Airport Director explains, “The Arizona Department of Transportation Multimodal Planning Division Aeronautics Group awarded a $2.1M grant to Yuma International Airport which will fund the vast majority of the project. The project is part of the Airport’s Capital Improvement Program and helps us to accomplish our long-term goals to extend the infrastructure health of the airport for many years into the future.”
Don Peterson, owner of DPE Construction shares, “We are thankful to be selected for the work and are looking forward to another successful project with the Airport Authority.” Wiggins added, “We are very pleased to award this project to DPE Construction, they have an incredibly talented team. Keeping these construction monies here in our community is another feather in Yuma’s hat and reflects the abilities of local contractors.” DPE was determined to be the lowest qualified bidder in a very competitive process that resulted in a total of six bids being considered.
The construction sites’ early history included being used by McDonnell Douglas in the 1980s
during development and testing of their MD-80 series aircraft, and has most recently been used
by Boeing and Pratt and Whitney. It has a combination of concrete and asphalt, which over the
years have begun to crumble, causing potential for Foreign Object Debris which is extremely
hazardous to aircraft. The new mostly concrete surface will provide benefits for years to come.
Construction of the project will begin in February with diligent communications between MCAS
Base Operations, Air Traffic Control and airfield users. Airport staff will post the project’s
phasing and progress on the airport’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/flyyuma.
