The Bonneville Power Administration plans to construct a 6,500-square-foot aircraft hangar at Spokane International Airport, where it keeps one to two helicopters used to spot from the air problems along its power transmission lines.

Grace Gates, a contracting officer for the Portland-based federal power marketing agency, says the project is expected to cost roughly $1 million. The agency expects to select a Spokane-area contractor soon to build the hangar, she says. Work on the hangar is to begin in May and to be completed by the end of the summer.

The new hangar will be located just north of the U.S. Postal Service Spokane Processing and Distribution Center, Gates says.

BPA has been subleasing hangar space for its one or two helicopters at the airport, and for a fixed-wing plane it owns that sometimes lands at SIA, but it's gotten more difficult to find space to lease, Gates says.

In addition to the aircraft storage, the hangar also will have offices for two staff mechanics that will work there, Gates says.

BPA has more than 15,000 miles of transmission line and about 300,000 square miles of service area in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana. It markets wholesale electrical power from 31 federal hydropower projects in the Columbia River Basin, a nonfederal nuclear power plant, and several small nonfederal power plants.

The helicopters here are used mostly to monitor the eastern portion of BPA's system, Gates says.

BPA also has a mechanical building here at its Bell Substation, which is located adjacent to the former Kaiser Mead aluminum plant property north of Spokane. BPA has a hangar at Portland International Airport and plans to build a hangar in Redmond, Ore., this year, Gates says.