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Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Spaceport Project Hits Snag
By Colleen Heild
Journal Staff Writer
One of two major structures under construction at the New Mexico Spaceport has been boarded up as officials re-evaluate its interior design.
The $2.9 million aircraft rescue and firefighting building was about 70 percent complete when workers were told to pack up, demobilize and return as late as April of next year.
Construction on the taxpayer-funded $200 million spaceport complex, which includes the main hangar and runway, is scheduled to be finished by mid-2011. The site is about 25 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences.
The building where work was suspended will house rescue and firefighting operations and equipment, vehicle bays, maintenance facilities, a communications room, security room and office space for Spaceport staff and key contractors.
Spaceport Executive Director Rick Homans said he ordered the suspension about a week ago as part of a change order, but he downplayed that action on Monday.
"This is not a material issue. This is normal. This is making sure we're getting it done right."
Homans said the additional cost to be incurred, if any, is likely to be "minimal." He added the delay "was not going to set the (overall) project back."
"This is why projects have contingencies. This is normal on a construction project to have things come up unexpectedly. It could be a big cost if we waited and had to tear things out in order to redo them later."
A project manager for Bateman-Hall, an Idaho Falls, Idaho, firm that has overseen the design work, referred comments to a Spaceport Authority spokesman on Monday.
A member of the state Spaceport Authority board that oversees the project had no comment.
The portion under evaluation includes the office spaces and the entrance, Homans said.
"We want to make sure the interior design and functionality works for us and that it is also in sync with the overall look and design of the other components of Spaceport America ... there's kind of brand and an image."
Homans said it was still undetermined how the re-evaluation would proceed and whether there needs to be a "special contract ... or do we need to put it out for bid."
Asked whether the features under re-evaluation should have been part of the original design, Homans said, "On projects like this where you're doing something that's never been done before, the closer you get to operation, the better understanding you have of the operational needs and the personnel requirements."
Homans said that by the end the first quarter of 2011 "we'll have all of that (re-evaluation) done and be able to bring them back to work and finish it off."
Just last month, Gov. Bill Richardson and Spaceport America officials welcomed Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson to a ceremony dedicating the Spaceport's runway.
Branson's firm is to be the anchor tenant for what is being billed as the world's first commercial spaceport.
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