Relocation of an access road within the interior of Barnes Regional Airport is proceeding as planned, Manager Brian Barnes said last night during the Airport Commission meeting.
The fact that reconstruction of that access road, used by airport and National Guard staff, is “on schedule” is a major concern to the Airport Commission and city officials.
That concern is due to the fact that the $20 million expansion of the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. aircraft service facility at Barnes Regional Airport is directly linked to relocating the access road. The existing access road crosses through the site of the Gulfstream project.
Gulfstream is expanding its facilities at the airport to service two new corporate airframes, the G-650 and the G-280, currently entering production. Gulfstream Aerospace Service Corporation signed a 50-year lease, with an option for a second 50 years, for about 10 acres of city-owned land at the airport. Gulfstream is planning to hire an additional 100 employees when construction is completed, bringing its current labor force to about 225 staff members.
The facility, will have a 75,000-square-foot hangar to service the corporate jets, with a 23,000-square-foot, two-story administrative space wrapped around the north and east faces of the hanger. Initially the office area will be located on the first floor of that administrative office area, with the second floor reserved for future expansion.
Barnes said the effort to reconstruct the access road, moving it out of the construction site has progressed to the point where Gulfstream will now begin construction. A ground breaking ceremony was slated for 12:30 p.m. this afternoon.
City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley said yesterday that the city’s plan was to relocate the access road at the Gulfstream site first to allow construction of the new facilities to begin as quickly as possible.
“That was always the plan, to do the road relocation out of the Gulfstream site first,” Daley said.
The Planning Board voted on March 20 to approve a special permit, site plan and stormwater management plan, as well as a parking requirement waiver needed to initiate the construction project.
Relocation of the interior access road is funded with a $3 million grant from the Massachusetts Aeronautic Commission, a division of the state Department of Transportation.
The city has also received a separate grant of $2 million from the Executive Office of Development & Housing to reconstruct the exterior access road, Airport Industrial Road. That project is being funded through the Massworks Infrastructure Program. Daley said that project is still in the engineering stage, but that he anticipates the design and permitting stage will be completed this summer, with reconstruction projected to begin by early fall and be completed next spring.
Construction of the Gulfstream expansion project is also expected to be completed within the next year.
