Airport needs new electrical systems

The City of Lloydminster’s general revenue fund has hit some turbulence after electrical systems at the airport were found to be working at below minimum safe operating standards.

In a report to the city filed by Integrated Airport Systems Ltd. out of St. Albert, an inspection of the airport found that underground cables were “leaking high voltages to ground at numerous locations.” The report said these hazards could potentially cause serious injury or death to people walking around the terminal or aircraft parking locations of the airport.

“The airport electrical systems are considerably below safe operation conditions and should be completely shut down if not rehabilitated prior to the winter season 2012,” said IASL in the report, which was completed after an inspection of the airport on July 9.

At a special city council meeting on Friday morning, council unanimously carried a motion to award the airport rehabilitation project to IASL, which will come in at a total cost of $694,650 plus tax.

Mayor Jeff Mulligan said while the cost is an unfortunate and unforeseen emergency expense, the repairs are an absolute necessity.

“I don’t want to act like that’s not a lot of money. It’s a lot of money that wasn’t planned for, that we have to find from general revenues,” he said. “The urgency for us is that once you have an identified risk and there could be a life or injury potential, then we’re obligated to get together, address it, assess the risk and do something.”

Cables for the project will need to be laid before the ground freezes. Adam Homes, infrastructure services deputy CAO, said work should start as soon as today and will hopefully be completed by early December, weather permitting.

In the report, IASL recommended the runway edge light circuits, precision approach path indicator light circuits, regulators and the airfield lighting control system be replaced due to age and obsolete safety standards, poor installation practices and deterioration.

Work on the project will be completed during the day, and temporary wiring will ensure the lights run during hours of darkness. A non-functional lighting system at the airport would mean STARS Air Ambulance, commercial, charter and private flights would not be able to take off and land during the morning and evening, however, according the City, the project will have no impact on regular flight services.

“At the worst of winter, we have a very shallow amount of hours of pure daylight where people could fly in and out,” said Mulligan. “The risk would be your commercial flights that go to Calgary, and of course, we are responsible to provide an airport for all of those people that are private airport fliers.”

Mulligan said the cost of the unexpected airport rehabilitation project shouldn’t have an effect on any other capital projects.

“We do carry some reserves and we’ll use some of those, but you have to hope there won’t be another unusual event or snow season because that’s when you have to start making really hard decisions.”