Upgrade work to begin this summer at Yellowknife airport, bigger improvements to follow
Initial work will include expanding bathrooms and patching runways
A comprehensive plan to update the Yellowknife airport is underway as the N.W.T. government says the territory’s needs have outgrown the existing facility.
“It’s definitely at its limits,” Infrastructure Minister Vince McKay said in an interview this week with CBC’s The Trailbreaker. Officials also provided a public briefing on plans for the airport last week.
The plan is to bring major changes to the airport’s layout, from a whole new terminal to a large piece of land allocated to the Department of National Defence (DND).
In the meantime, some other improvements are already planned for the existing terminal, which was built in 1963.
The airport has a number of projects it’s currently working on and will be proceeding with this summer, said Randy Straker, the airport’s manager, at last week’s briefing.
Work to repair and expand the washrooms has begun, with the contract for design work already assigned.
Straker said the airport is in the process of working with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority to get new technology that would make security screening more efficient. That’s expected to cost around $1 million.
A new passenger processing system that will allow airlines to use any check-in counter should be implemented in May, he also said, replacing a system that has reached the end of its life.
In June, work to patch the shortest of the airport’s two runways will begin, along with overlay, repairs and drainage work on some taxiways, he said.
Then in July, the main terminal’s apron, where planes can be parked for servicing and boarding, will also get patched. Other work to provide a buffer area at the end of the runway could also begin this summer, Straker said, now that federal funding has been secured.
Sam Shannon, assistant deputy minister with the Infrastructure department, told CBC News it’s “hard to say at this point” how the planned upgrade work might affect travelers, but said he expected passengers to keep moving through.
New terminal could be a decade away
In the longer term, the Department of Infrastructure wants to build a brand new terminal with more capacity than the existing 63-year-old facility. The department is applying for federal funds to start design work.
Shannon said such a project, from the start of design work to cutting the ribbon, can take around seven to eight years.
Considering none of that work has started yet, he said seeing a new terminal 10 years from now would be “in the ballpark” of what to expect.
“We’d like to move faster than that, if conditions allow,” he said.
Some of the work planned for the coming years will be done to meet the DND’s needs, like a runway extension and parallel taxiways for both runways.
Shannon said DND will pay for the design work but the Department of Infrastructure will manage it under a contribution agreement, starting with procurement in the coming weeks for the design.
Shannon said the reason it has taken so long for work on the airport to begin is because of the extensive planning that has been in the works for years.
“Outwardly looking, it looks like not a lot has gone on,” he said.
“But certainly, behind the scenes, we’ve been working quite hard at making sure that we’re planning appropriately and that we’re prepared to meet the moment with the DND investment and the opportunity that that presents.”
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