A $6.8 million upgrade is underway at the Polson Airport, all being completed in a planned 90-day window with construction expected to wrap up on July 2.  

The project, 95% covered by a roughly $6.4 million Federal Aviation Administration grant, includes reconstructing the runway, parallel taxiway and apron. The infrastructure improvements also entail a new lighting system, new wind cones and a new set of approach lights on the southern end of the airport. A portion of the funding also comes from a Montana Aeronautics grant.  

Mat Wilder, the project manager with Helena-based Robert Peccia & Associates, said this will set the airport up for the next 20 years, with only basic maintenance needed.  

RPA designed and bid the project to take only 90 days and awarded the contract to Knife River. During this period, the airport has been entirely closed to air traffic. The upgrades were originally projected to be completed by June 27, but Wilder said weather caused some delays.  

RPAs' design fees, onsite inspections and airport surveys will also be covered by the grant.  

Forrest Walker, the engineering designer and construction technician with RPA, explained that some of the previous asphalt was in good enough condition that they were able to pulverize it and will create a new paved top over it.  

In other areas, crews had to cut into the ground by 34 inches or more to create a stable base layer. Wilder said there were also portions where crews had to dig another two feet into the ground, due to the amount of clay. This meant they had to bring in more gravel and made the design “pretty challenging.”  

Wilder explained that the previous pavement had cracked. The subgrade was also starting to heave, and during the wintertime, this caused ruts and bumps to appear in the pavement.  

Wilder said Knife River has been great to work with, and when they are feeling behind, they have added more men and equipment at the airport to get back up to speed. 

The project also included replacing the entire drainage system beneath the runway to prevent water from saturating the materials beneath the pavement.  

“Some of the drain edging (a specialized barrier around landscaping) drainpipes we put in, they have a grade of 2%,” Walker said. “Turns out an airport's a big flat chunk of ground, and big flat chunks of ground are hard to drain water off of.”  

Wilder said the dimensions of the new pavement are not changing. However, some of the corners are being widened to meet Federal Aviation Administration standards.  

The 4,194-foot-long runway is built to accommodate general aviation aircraft weighing up to 12,500 pounds.  

Wilder said that airport users have been understanding, even though the shutdown has been an inconvenience. He added that the Lake County Joint Airport Board has also been great to work with and is very supportive.  

“Our biggest focus was to get this knocked out before the peak tourist season, before peak flying season,” Wilder said. 

The airport also received another grant, which they are using to fund an 8-foot wildlife fence project around the entire facility. Wilder said this project is only in its preliminary phases, and they hope to bid it out this summer or in early fall.

   Project manager Mat Wilder and engineering designer and construction technician Forrest Walker, both with Robert Peccia & Associates, review the airport revamp plans. (Emily Messer/Lea