The big question that the state's largest airport has about the future of its terminal just got more expensive to answer.
The cost of developing a new master plan at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field, its first since 2007, has climbed from $800,000 to more than $1.3 million.
The latter figure is more in line with what airport officials received from an independent estimator and with the costs for similar work at two other airports. The Federal Aviation Administration, which will pay 90 percent of the master-plan cost, is OK with the higher figure, airport officials said Wednesday.
Among other things, developing the master plan, which will take up to 18 months, will help determine when the airport will expand its concourse, which now has 12 gates. Originally, the expansion was considered Phase II of a terminal improvement program. But at that time, the airport had more than 1.2 million boardings a year.
That number since has dropped below 1 million annually, although it is rising again. The master plan looks at the long-range needs of the airport. The terminal will be expanded -- eventually.
"We're looking at five, 10, 20 years out," Bryan Malinowski, the airport's deputy executive director, said Wednesday. "It's just a matter of when. We've got a lot of ground to cover."
Airport officials Wednesday disclosed the higher costs for the plan at a meeting of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission's lease committee.
The disclosure came more than a year after the commission approved the selection of Leigh Fisher Inc. as the airport's planning consultant for the master plan, and of Woolpert Inc. to prepare an electronic airport layout plan, a new federal requirement. Woolpert, as part of its agreement with Clinton National, also will provide on-call airport planning, surveying and engineering services.
Airport officials negotiated a staff contract with both firms for an initial term of three years with three one-year extensions available at the commission's discretion.
Initially, the total budget for both parts of the plan was $800,000.
However, after both firms were selected -- but before contract prices were negotiated -- the airport's independent fee estimator priced the work at $1,341,141. That prompted airport officials to contact two other similarly sized airports that had developed new master and layout plans, and check on their costs. The officials learned that the costs were in line with the revised Clinton National estimate.
"It will take a lot more man-hours to complete the master plan and the [airport layout plan]" than airport officials had estimated, Malinowski said.
The estimates were reported to the FAA, which agreed to increase its level of funding, airport officials said.
The final price negotiated was $1,320,625 for both projects, which was less than the independent estimator had said, airport officials said.
"It's fair value," said Tom Clarke, the planning, development and properties director for Clinton National. "It's what we're paying."
The master plan also is an important document for the airport to plan and stage its capital projects for the next several years, not just the terminal, airport officials said. Irrespective of when the terminal will be expanded, airport officials said the airport's apron, or ramp, is in need of major work.
"One of the requirements for any capital improvement [that] the FAA funds [is] it has to appear on our airport layout plan," Clarke said.
Another factor in the delayed start to the master plan development was that one of the seven commission seats was vacant for the first five months of the year. The commission members are appointed by the Little Rock Board of Directors.
The newest member, Meredith Catlett, a lawyer in private practice, was seated last month.
"We wanted to wait until we had all seven commissioners seated," Clarke said. "We didn't think it would be fair to have a process already started and have her jump in afterwards."
Metro on 07/14/2016