Spokane International Airport has announced the low bidders for two construction projects—together worth $8.4 million—to be paid for with federal stimulus money.

Acme Concrete Paving Inc., of Spokane, bid $6.7 million for one of the projects, a second bid package for SIA's big terminal ramp reconstruction project, says airport spokesman Todd Woodard.

Meanwhile, Bouten Construction Co., of Spokane, is the low bidder, with a bid of $1.7 million, to construct a building that will be used to store snow-removal equipment at the airport.

The second bid package in the airport terminal ramp construction project had been planned for later, depending on the availability of funds, Woodard says. In addition to being able to advance the project due to the availability of federal dollars through the stimulus program, SIA has realized savings with bids significantly lower than its estimates for both ramp reconstruction projects.

For the most recent terminal ramp construction bid, for example, SIA engineers estimated the cost at about $9.8 million, Woodard says.

Earlier this year, SIA awarded William Winkler Co., of Spokane, a $7.7 million contract for the first phase of that project, less than half the engineers' estimate for that work.

Because of cost estimates of the projects, Woodard says, the airport staff didn't think it would be possible to do the second project this year. Overall, the entire multiphase terminal ramp reconstruction project has been estimated to cost between $24 million and $27 million, but with the low bids it could cost far less than that.

Once SIA receives final approval of the bids by the Federal Aviation Administration, work on the second ramp reconstruction job should begin this year and continue into 2010, Woodard says. In the project, the contractor will reconstruct a portion of the terminal apron near concourses A and B, adjacent to the first project, which already is under way, Woodard says.

He says coordinating the project with airline customers that normally use gates at the site of the current work was eased by the recent merging of Delta and Northwest Airlines. Northwest already had moved its gates from Concourse A to Concourse B following that merger, and no other airlines will be affected directly by the work, Woodard says.

In the other recently bid project, Bouten Construction is the low bidder to construct a 22,000-square-foot concrete tilt-up structure that will house the airport's snow removal equipment. That bid also must be approved by the FAA for funding under the stimulus program. The new building will be located adjacent to the airport's current maintenance building, northeast of the passenger concourses, Woodard says. Once the contract amount is approved, the work will proceed fairly soon during this construction season, he says.