As reported in last week’s edition of the American-News, the newly constructed T-hangar at the Montevideo-Chippewa County Airport is facing some construction related issues. To recap, the hangar sits 1.5 feet below grade, a steel post in its current position does not allow for a larger plane to be stored in a hangar bay; rodent guards need to be installed to keep rodents from entering the hangar; and grading of the site needs to take place in order to divert water flow away from the new hangar.

As reported in last week’s edition of the American-News, the newly constructed T-hangar at the Montevideo-Chippewa County Airport is facing some construction related issues. To recap, the hangar sits 1.5 feet below grade, a steel post in its current position does not allow for a larger plane to be stored in a hangar bay; rodent guards need to be installed to keep rodents from entering the hangar; and grading of the site needs to take place in order to divert water flow away from the new hangar.

Montevideo City Mana­ger Robert Wolfing­ton, said: “Ultimately, we want to make sure that the Airport Commission, the county, the city, and the people renting the hangars are satisfied. That’s what we are trying to accomplish. Hopefully, we’ll find a resolution that will work for everybody.”

Arguably, the issue of the greatest concern is the slope of the ground immediately to the southeast of the new hangar. “Discussions have been held concerning how to grade the site so water between the two hangars flows away from the new hangar,” said Wolfington.

The issue was first discovered late last fall. “Back in late October or early November, SEH reached out to me and said they had discovered the issue and said thay they would take care of it,” Wolfington said. “The Airport Commission met and expressed a lot of concerns at that time, but the consensus was that SEH (Short Elliot Hendrickson) was our engineer and they said they would come up with a proposal. We decided to let them follow through with it because it would be at their expense, and not at the expense of the city, county or the airport.”

The steel post located in the 50-foot wide hangar bay will also be addressed by SEH. “What has been proposed,” said Wolfing­ton, is that the post will be cut out and moved in order to allow a larger plane to back in.

“The Airport Commis­sion saw an opportunity to create space for a larger aircraft, but the post was placed according to the original blueprint. The hangar is basically a pre-fab building; it was ordered and pre-built to spec.”

Another concern of the Airport Commissioners were the gaps between the metal interior wall panels and the floor, as well as gaps at the outer edges of the hangar doors.”SEH believes this issue can be addressed as well, but they have yet to put forward a proposal. This was an issue that was raised a few weeks ago when the commissioners had the opportunity to tour the hangar,” said Wolfington.

SEH will provide a proposal to the Airport Commission detailing its plans to address the various issues. The commission will then seek an outside second opinion on SEH’s proposal.

“It’s disappointing that this is where we are at with this project, but we want to make sure we get this done right,” said Wolfington. “We have to work with what we have. We have not signed off on the building, so the building is technically still under construction. Until we sign off, we can continue to make changes.”

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