New Airport on Horizon for Wessington Springs

(Pierre) Work has begun on the $1 million dollar Wessington Springs Municipal Airport. The project has been in the planning stage for ten years and now will become reality later this year.

An original Site Selection Study was completed for the airport in 1992 and updated in 2001. A layout of the airport was prepared in 1996, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that land was purchased for the actual construction of the project. Work began in August and is expected to be finished by November.

Construction for the airport includes building a runway, aircraft parking apron and taxiway. A low intensity runway lighting system, rotating beacon, fencing and other improvements will also be added.

This project marks the first time in nearly 20 years that a new airport is being built in a community that didn’t have one before. The last was in 1985 when the city of Belle Fourche constructed a new airport site.

Wessington Springs awarded the construction bid to Midland Contracting Inc. from Huron with Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. from Sioux Falls serving as project engineers. The project is funded through a combination of federal, state and local dollars with the FAA picking up 90% of the tab, the South Dakota Department of Transportation contributing 4% and the City of Wessington Springs adding the remaining 6%.

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