Expansion, fire repairs keep Colorado Springs Airport busy

It’s not just increased airline passenger traffic that’s keeping the Colorado Springs Airport busy this summer.

Airport officials also continue repairs to damage from a roof fire in April, and are using a $7.3 million federal grant to renovate the airport’s taxiways.

Officials said repairs should be finished by Thanksgiving and cost at least $5 million, paid for with insurance proceeds. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“We hope to have the two restaurants and the upstairs administrative offices reopen by the end of August,” said Chris Touch, interim design and construction manager at the airport.

Touch said only around a third of the debris has been removed.

“Just this week, we found more damage that we didn’t expect,” he said. “This is a massive project that, essentially, we couldn’t plan for.”

Touch said the fire damaged parts of all three levels of the airport.

“The non-public areas will be restored to their original conditions but the public areas will have a completely different look,” he said. “We’re using money from a separate improvement fund for that.”

The goals are to keep the airport neat and clean during repairs, Touch said, as well as make it easy for passengers to find their way, and make the fire’s aftermath unnoticeable.

Airport spokeswoman Aidan Ryan said the $7.3 million federal grant will cover the second of a three-phase project to rebuild the taxiways between the runways and the terminal.

“The more (passengers) we have, the more distress that happens on the taxiways,” she said. “We’re experiencing a bit of premature distress on one in particular. That’s why they’re fixing it.”

Ryan said none of the federal money is being used for other improvements or expansion.

“The current size of the airport meets our needs,” she said. “Our city is growing but we still have empty seats on flights. If we get to a point when we fill every seat, we may consider future expansion.”

Passenger traffic at the airport has increased nearly 20 percent, according to the latest figures released for April.

In a related matter, at least a dozen planes were diverted to the airport from Denver International Airport because of stormy weather. Among those diverted were three Southwest Airlines jets and a United Parcel Service jet. All were expected to resume flying later Thursday night.