NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The North East Hangar renovation project is slated to begin in earnest in January of  2023.

 

Stantec Engineer Peter Enzien told the airport commission Tuesday that with wait times for materials, demolition work, and administration work construction would likely begin after the holidays into the new year.

 

"There will be a lag until they start to receive some of those materials," he said. "Then they will be able to get back in the hangar and hit the project hard."

 

The city plans to use non-primary entitlement funding and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds to renovate a city-owned hangar.

 

Enzien said Stantec recently met with the general contractor Tierney Construction for a preconstruction meeting to get a better sense of the project schedule. He explained that there will be a wait time for certain materials.

 

"There are a number of long lead items on this project. Almost everything basically," he said. "The siding, the roofing panels, the bifold door. Everything has lead times from anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks." 

 

There are still some decisions to be made in terms of materials and colors but otherwise, the next step is demolition work.

 

"We need to take down the existing side paneling, the interior liner panels, exterior panels, the rest of the trim has to come off," he said. "There is some insulation inside and some electrical demo as well."

 

This work should be done in the first week of November. It should only take a few days.

 

After this, the project will be largely put on pause until the new year when materials are available.

 

Enzien reported on a successful meeting with the Federal Aviation Administration and MassDOT in regard to the airport's newly updated Capitol Improvement Plan (CIP) that lists upcoming projects the city would like to complete at the airport, among other things.

 

He said the CIP stayed largely intact only nixing projects that the state plans to support statewide in the near future. 

 

More importantly, it was pointed out that the city needs to contract with a new airport consultant in order to start scoping new projects for 2023 such as the restaurant in the administrative building.

 

"It is something we are required to do every five years, and we haven't done it in six-plus," Mary Katherine Eade, administrative officer and acting airport manager said. "So I am working on pulling together an RFQ [Request for Quote] together with a lot more urgency than we had before we had the CIP meeting."

 

Stantec was brought on over 6 years ago.

 

Enzien urged the city to get this process underway but said this doesn't mean the city has to stay in a holding pattern.

 

"You can't scope any projects until you go through that selection process but what you can still do is have project worksheets," he said. "It is like a pre-application for the project that we can get filled out so we can get in the pipeline. But you would still have to go through the selection process before we can start a project."

 

The commission's main concern was seeking grant funding for the proposed airport restaurant.

 

Enzien added that this will not impact 2022 projects such as the North East Hangar.