GARY | After a contentious meeting July 1, the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority agreed unanimously Thursday to move ahead with a plan to hire a construction firm that will oversee the airport's $90 million expansion.
Authority members voted to publish a request for quotation in local newspapers and on national airport websites such as the Airport Council and the American Association of Airport Executives.
Return of responses is expected in about four weeks, said Airport Director Chris Curry.
"(A request for quotation) requires a fairly decent amount of time for companies to gather teams and answer the request," Curry said following the meeting. If everything goes as planned, a project manager could be hired within a few months.
Airport authority board member Silas Wilkerson requested that the request for quotation be forwarded to the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, which is paying for part of the airport's strategic business plan.
The project management job was part of the airport plan designed earlier this year by consultants Landrum & Brown. The company recommended hiring an experienced engineering firm for the overseer job and provided the names of four firms.
Two weeks ago, the airport board interviewed two of those firms for the multimillion dollar job, both which had been solicited by a combined task force from the authority and the RDA.
However, the airport authority board member Cornell Collins said at the July 1 meeting that the request for quotation wasn't publicized and not authorized by the board. He urged the board to undertake a public bidding process for the job. The board voted 5-2 in favor of that motion.
At that same meeting, the airport board approved restarting stalled negotiations with railroads about the tracks stand in the way of airport expansion. Those tracks sit on an embankment 130 feet from the northwest end of the airport's main runway and will have to be moved to make way for the expansion.
After Thursday's meeting, Curry said the airport staff will continue negotiating with the rail lines until the project manager is on board and ready to take over those talks.
