Airport Project
Employees of Wieser Brothers of La Crescent, Minn. work on the new terminal building being constructed at the Prairie du Chien Municipal Airport.
New terminal being built at
Prairie du Chien Municipal Airport
By Ted Pennekamp and Correne Martin
Work began about a month ago on the new $1.06 million terminal building at Prairie du Chien Municipal Airport.
The building will be larger than the current building. Airport Manager Richard Yeomans said the current building was probably built around 1970, but it is not known exactly when it was constructed. He said the Federal Aviation Administration feels the building has reached its life expectancy. The equipment and technology of the current building is now considered to be inferior.
The original budget for the project, from May 2015, was $919,000. But, in November of 2015, the budget grew to $1.06 million, of which the city is required to provide 9 percent. The new building will be 2,264 square feet.
Except for the city’s share, the new building is being paid for through federal entitlements, which only allow for new construction and not renovation. The city’s share of the brand new building is projected to be $99,797. Yeomans said the cost of the new building will not include furniture.
The Bureau of Aeronautics recommended the city sign a transfer agreement with the Burlington Municipal Airport, which would trade Prairie du Chien’s 2018 entitlement credit for Burlington’s leftover 2012 entitlement credit. This has been done with two other recent terminal projects—Reedsburg and Monroe—and both of those projects would not have happened if they didn’t approve the swap of funds.
MSA Professional Services of Dubuque is the architect for the project which includes a larger and improved flight planning and pilots lounge, a larger interior lounge, improved bathrooms, a larger storage area, and a locked mechanical room with traffic control equipment enclosed. There are no plans to include a weather terminal, as many pilots now obtain forecast and condition details via their Smartphones.
Wieser Brothers of La Crescent, Minn. is constructing the new terminal building.
“It’s gonna be really nice,” said Yeomans. “It’ll last another 50 years, I hope.”
The current terminal building will be put up for sale. It may be torn down at a later date if it is not sold, Yeomans said.
The new terminal building will be one more improvement to the airport that will better serve the airport’s clientele and, hopefully, will help draw new businesses to the Prairie du Chien area, Yeomans said. One example is Solomon Corportation of Kansas which considered the airport as part of its reason to relocate to Prairie du Chien. Yeomans also cited the 5,000-foot runway for jet traffic which was constructed in 2000 and opened on June 29 of that year as helping area businesses. The airport also has a 4,000-foot runway.
A few of the other area businesses which have corporate jets are Cabela’s, Universal Forest Products, Lady Luck Casino, and Dillman Equipment. Celebrities such as NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth and politicians Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden have also used the jet traffic runway.
