Acme Concrete & Paving Inc., of Spokane, has won a $3.2 million contract to do preliminary work that is part of an estimated $34 million project next year that involves reconstruction of Runway 21 at Spokane International Airport.

The work Acme will do involves a number of preparatory projects located in the northeast part of the airport, near the beginning of Runway 21, says Acme project manager Bryan White. They include relocating a portion of a service road, an aircraft staging area, some storage tanks, and radio and electrical control buildings.

Those projects, along with a second phase of work that will include raising and reconfiguring that end of the runway and a host of other related improvements, are required by the Federal Aviation Administration to improve the line-of-sight for aircraft and the runway gradient, the airport says.

Acme will relocate 1,250 feet of the Airport Perimeter Service Road to the north and west to make room for further construction activity, says SIA spokesman Todd Woodard.

It also will move an aircraft staging area from near the start of Runway 21 to a space north of Taxiway A. That space currently is occupied by 13 glycol storage tanks owned or leased by different airlines. Glycol is used to deice aircraft in freezing weather.

Acme will move those tanks about 65 feet to the west, Woodard says.

The contract also includes construction of a new building to house equipment and controls for some of the airfield's electrical and lighting systems, and another shelter that houses a radio system, called a localizer, that sends signals to incoming aircraft to help them align with the runway, White says.

Acme was expected to begin work on the project this month, pending approval by the city and county, and to complete it by next May, Woodard says.

In the second phase of work, the northeast end of Runway 21 will be raised by 6 feet, and the top of its crown will be moved about 19 feet to the center of the runway.

Both modifications will correct the runway's nonstandard line of sight and gradient, the airport says. That phase of work also will involve reconstruction of portions of taxiway A and G near that end of the runway, relocating other equipment shelters and antennas, and installing or modifying runway lighting systems there.

That work is scheduled to get under way next March and is to run through November 2011, says Woodard. Bids for that work won't be sought until Congress passes its fiscal year 2011 appropriations for the FAA, the airport says.

The Spokane Valley office of URS Corp., of San Francisco, was awarded a $1.5 million contract to design both phases of the overall project.

The project is funded by federal Airport Improvement Program funds, which come from an 8 percent fee collected on each airline ticket, and from taxes on aviation fuel, says Woodard.

The Airport Board also recently awarded a contract for $601,000 to Shamrock Paving Inc., of Spokane.

That work involves patching, crack sealing, and fog sealing the old Concourse C parking lot, providing pavement overlay on one mile of outbound lanes of Airport Drive from Flint Road to Spotted Road, and replacing sections of pavement adjacent to the air cargo building and the aircraft rescue and firefighting building, Woodard says.