WARSAW — Studies for alternatives of CR 100E, adjacent to Warsaw Municipal Airport, are being developed for submission to the Federal Aviation Administration. Ken Ross, NGC Corporation, engineering firm, gave an update on this and other projects at the monthly meeting of the Warsaw Municipal Airport Board of Aviation Commissioners Tuesday evening, Feb. 9.Ross stated closing of CR 100E is not an option. This was reiterated several times during and after the meeting. However, studies on all options are required. Ross said the options are: do nothing, provide studies on closing CR 100E, a longer loop (relocating the road) and a tunnel. Emergency personnel will be contacted to provide input to response times on all options.

“The information we provide will lean toward the tunnel or a longer loop. Our goal is to make sure the tunnel is the best choice,” said Ross. He added impacts of each choice are required. He said officials have already stated the short loop – using local roads and rehabilitating those roads, is off the table.

The environmental assessment on choices will be revised as necessary. This assessment is part of the process for the project. Early indications are the FAA is leaning toward putting a tunnel on CR 100E or the longer loop.

Ross also reported a conference call with the FAA on Jan. 19, resulted in the power line relocation being incorporated into the Airport Layout Plan. The power line relocation project is for lowering several high tension lines east of the airport.

The ALP additionally includes making changes to several runways to shorten the length available for landing on one runway, to keep the runway from being closed, and extending another runway. Both runways would intersect alleviating the FAA’s concerns with non-intersecting runways.

Ross did submit several pay applications.

• Approval was given to pay $8,065.75 for engineering costs on the power line relocation project. The city’s portion of the cost is $302.93 with the remainder being paid by federal and state funds.
• Approval given to pay soft costs associated with the land acquisition project in the amount of $61,202.50. Because the airport authority has paid most of this cost, the funds received from federal and state authorities will be deposited into airport funds.

During other business the commissioners approved turning over a pay dispute with NIPSCO to the city’s insurance company. The airport incurred a $10,397.69 bill from Michiana Contracting for immediate repair of electrical control lines when NIPSCO cut the lines. The lines were cut during a recent FAA project on the property. NIPSCO has officially denied fault and offered to pay 50 percent.

The next meeting of the commission will be 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 8.