The Grande Prairie Airport is gearing up to receive the latest technology when it comes to airport safety. Director of Operations Doug Mark says there are two major projects planned with the $750,000 that the federal government gave for safety projects. He notes that these replacements for safety measures will help bring them back up to safety standards.
“They’re safety measures that the average person wouldn’t notice, but they are safety measures that are there.”
The first project will be replacing the sand storage, which is estimated to cost $134,680. The second project has two phases, the first one planned is to replace the emergency standby generator and the second part is to replace the airport directional signage. Both the generator and the signage are expected to cost $612,070.
“We’re looking quite forward to it, the existing one is aging, so it’s certainly nice to get a new unit,” he says.
Mark says the current generator and the signage are roughly 30 years old noting that some of the standards for signage have changed over the past 30 years. He says the signage replacement is the directional signs that aircraft follow when they’re coming off runways.
The generator is used in case of failure to the commercial power system, and also supplies emergency power to the airport including runway lights to ensure the airport can function.
Mark says the plan is to have the construction start around the middle of July and is hoping everything will be wrapped up in September of this year.