Photo courtesy of URS Airport Services

A rendering of the replacement terminal that Sundt Construction will start building at the Wichita Falls Municipal Airport this summer.

For this project, Sundt has a local joint venture partner, contractor Trinity Hughes. The design architect is URS, teamed with local architect Bundy, Young, Sims & Potter.

“The Wichita Falls Municipal Airport is a joint-use facility, located at Sheppard Air Force Base,” says Robert Schmidt, aviation engineering manager with URS Corp. “In this case, the city leases land from the Air Force in order to operate a civilian terminal, which is served by American Eagle. The joint use arrangement presents unique challenges in coordinating design standards, construction operations, and security procedures.”

According to Sundt, the replacement terminal building will be built on an existing parking lot. The two-gate airport terminal will include passenger ticketing, baggage processing, restrooms, passenger screening, administrative offices, airside apron paving, passenger boarding bridges, a rental car facility and parking.

“The 40,000-sq-ft terminal is will be on one level to maximize convenience for the traveling public,” Schmidt says. “The existing site will be elevated by about eight feet to provide the vertical clearance necessary to install passenger-boarding bridges.”

Sundt/Trinity Hughes crews will start building the facility this summer, with a 13-month construction schedule. The estimated cost is $25 million.

“The funding was obtained from a variety of sources, including the FAA Airport Improvement Program, Passenger Facility Charges, Military Airports Program and from the City of Wichita Falls,” Schmidt says.

As part of the project, the airport owner is also considering the addition of “an aircraft display area that would include a WW I JN-4D ‘Jenny,’ typical of the aircraft used for flight training at Call Field in Wichita Falls, and a T-38 ‘Talon,’ currently in use today,” Schmidt says. “The two aircraft and related display area would span the history of flight training in Wichita Falls.”