Airport commission green-lights public art and safety enhancing construction projects, eyes more renovations

At its monthly meeting July 29, the 14-member Capital Region Airport Commission approved funding for the construction of an Aircraft Rescue & Fire Fighting Station and for a landscaping and art project that will add a 24-foot tall sculpture of a dogwood blossom.

The commission voted to award a $23-million contract to Cooper Tacia General Contracting Co. of Raleigh, North Carolina for the construction of the ARFF, a 30,000-square-foot, two-story facility with six apparatus bays, support spaces, 10 single-room living quarters with four showers, laundry facilities, a kitchen, dining and exercise area. Additional spaces will include a watch room, a business suite and a training area.

The facility, which will replace an existing one, will be relocated south of the airport's runways. Construction is expected to take place over 18 months, with funding coming from Airport Improvement Program Entitlements, the Virginia Department of Aviation Entitlements and commission funds.

The commission also voted to award a $4.4-million contract to AWR Contracting, Inc. of Chester for a center core landscaping and art project. The hardscape features of the project, which is slated for the area between the North and South hourly parking lots, include pavers and electric vehicle charging stations; updated automatic irrigation; and an art instillation featuring a 24-foot tall dogwood blossom sculpture that will replace bushes.

Also during the meeting, the commission received an updated from RIC Director of Capital Development Nagesh Tummala about the airside, passenger and landside improvements that are in process and scheduled to occur in the near future.

The design phase of a fuel farm is in progress, to be completed in the late fall. Numerous airside projects in progress now include the Taxiways C and E intersection relocation, 12 passenger boarding bridge replacements, a vehicle wash facility, a hangar roof replacement and a roofing project, Tummala said.

Passengers will notice restroom renovations in Concourse A and in Concourse B, likely sometime next year. In the future, RIC passengers will see a consolidated security screening checkpoint and rental car vendors relocated, with a new enclosed walkway that connects to the rental car garage.

Other projects in the works at RIC that will be complete this summer are first-floor South garage lighting replacement and landside paving improvements. Second-floor garage lighting improvements will come in time for the winter holidays this year, while a parking guidance system – like one in place at Orlando International Airport that indicates available parking spaces and allows users to reserve spaces – is in the design phase.

The commission also voted to approve a recommendation from its finance committee to extend Piedmont Airline's lease for $219,324, with nearly $43,000 in back rent. And it approved extending RIC's rental car concession agreement with eight national vendors totaling $7.5 million in minimum annual guarantees.

The group also granted a drainage and temporary easement construction project located along Charles City Road on Capital Region Airport Commission parcels to Haas PO, LLC.

CVTA-RIC partnership possible

The commission also heard from Chet Parsons, the executive director of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, which administers transportation funding generated through regional fuel and sales/use taxes. The organization leverages larger funding opportunities to ensure the efficient use of resources for long-term benefits.

The CRAC is in the process of developing an updated strategic plan, and members and staffers were interested in how the CVTA might figure into that process. Although the commission isn't currently receiving funding from the authority, Parsons explained that that could change in the future.

“We are recognized as a bonding authority, and down the road, we will be developing a bond package expected in the spring,” Parsons said, suggesting that such an issuance of bonds could potentially include money for airport projects.

Created by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020, the CVTA's goals are to identify important regional projects that most likely would not be funded otherwise and to secure funds for them.

With tax revenue of $200 million, CVTA is primarily focused on highway, transit, bicycle, pedestrian and bridge projects as well as preliminary engineering and planning of projects.

Also during the commission's meeting, RIC President and CEO Perry Miller reported the airport enjoyed an all-time record month, welcoming 456,381 passengers in June, which slightly surpassed the previous record of 455,114 reported in May 2024.

The CRAC includes representatives from Henrico, Hanover, Chesterfield and Richmond; Henrico's representatives are supervisors Tyrone Nelson (Varina), Roscoe Cooper, III (Fairfield) and Misty Roundtree (Three Chopt), and businessman Bobby Ukrop.

Dina Weinstein is the Citizen’s community vitality reporter and a Report for America corps member, covering housing, health and transportation. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.