A number of rural airports in Eastern Washington and North Idaho are preparing projects, worth a combined about $2.3 million, to add space for private hangars or to improve safety.

Among those with projects soon to be under construction are Kootenai County Airport, Davenport Municipal Airport, Grand Coulee Dam Airport, and St. Maries Municipal Airport. Most of the projects involve adding facilities to promote additional private hangar development. Typically, a general aviation airport enters into long-term land leases with private parties, who then can construct hangars for their aircraft on airport sites. The taxiways provide airplanes with access to the additional space for hangars.

For Kootenai County's Coeur d'Alene Airport, Interstate Concrete & Asphalt, of Coeur d'Alene, is the contractor selected to construct a $580,000 new taxilane and related facilities on a 10-acre parcel the airport purchased, says J.R. Norvell, a project manager for T-O Engineers Inc., of Coeur d'Alene, which designed the project.

The project includes construction of a main taxilane that is 600 feet long, and four "spurs" extending off the taxilane that each will be about 300 feet long, with room for hangars on both sides, Norvell says.

Also at Coeur d'Alene Airport, Richard L. Jordan, of Boise, will install water and sewer lines in a related project. The cost of that work is about $70,000, Norvell says. He says both projects will begin in mid- to late July and are expected to take about 50 days altogether to complete.

Separately, T-O Engineers also designed a taxilane extension for St. Maries Municipal Airport, which is owned by Benewah County, Idaho. The Coeur d'Alene office of Hap Taylor & Sons, which does business as Knife River, is the low bidder for that job, with a bid of just over $1 million. That work is a safety upgrade that's being funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, a county employee says. The project is to entail extending the taxiway, which is parallel to the runway there, to the full length of the runway. Currently, airplanes have to "back-taxi" on the runway until they reach the parallel taxilane, creating safety concerns during the busy fire season, she says.

Meanwhile, the city of Davenport, Wash., has selected Copenhaver Construction Inc., of Creston, Wash., to construct a taxiway that will connect two taxilanes at its municipal airport, allowing for additional hangar development there, says city administrator Steve Goemmel. Copenhaver bid $252,000 for that work, which is expected to begin around the beginning of August, and will take about 60 days to complete, Goemmel says.

The project is being paid for primarily with FAA money, with Davenport and the Washington state Department of Transportation each contributing 2.5 percent of the cost.

Davenport also is adding a fueling facility to its airport, for which Garsite Tanks, of Kansas City, Kan., has been awarded an $85,000 contract. Goemmel says that project should be completed before a scheduled antique aircraft event takes place there in July, but the city still is seeking a vendor interested in selling fuel at the airport. The Spokane office of Anchorage, Alaska-based USKH Inc. designed both of the Davenport projects.

USKH also designed a taxiway development project planned at Grand Coulee Dam Airport, which is operated by Grant County Port District No. 7. The airport is located at Electric City, Wash. The port district recently opened bids for that project, but won't award the contract until it secures funds and finalizes a land lease, says Ken Nichols, a senior civil engineer in the Spokane office of USKH. Selland Construction Inc., of Wenatchee, Wash., submitted the low bid of $328,000 for that project.

The project will include constructing a taxiway that will allow for development of up to six additional hangars at the airport, and upgrading the runway to meet FAA standards, including grading the area around the runway to add a wider and longer safety area. Grand Coulee Dam Airport has a waiting list for three of the planned additional hangar spaces, Nichols says.

He says there seems to be a busy market for private hangar space at rural airports, despite the economy, perhaps from people taking advantage of good deals on private aircraft.

"There are some great bargains out there for planes right now," Nichols says. "The same plane you could get for $75,000 a few years ago, now you can get for $40,000."