Ellington Field is making concrete progress. The first load of 15 inch cement was poured in last month for the much anticipated taxi-lane Kilo project, which is months ahead of schedule. “We’re expecting the project to be finished by late March,” says Mohammad Zaheri, senior project manager for the Ellington Field improvements. “We have five projects underway at Ellington right now and it is very exciting.” Originally the new taxi-lane was slated to be completed in July 2007. Among the other projects in the works for the joint-use civil/military airport are new physical design and color schemes for the buildings at the airport. Kilo, though, the approximately 1,800 linear foot taxi-lane, is by far the most significant development in the airport’s new construction. That stretch of pavement, which runs roughly a third of a mile, opens up an entire bay of new business opportunities for Ellington Field. “Building a taxi lane is like putting a lake into an area, it opens up new waterfront property which is otherwise known as runway access,” says Perry Miller, manager of Ellington Field. “This puts us another step closer to being a more vibrant airport that can support the increased amount of general aviation traffic generated in the Houston area. We want to make sure we’re keeping pace with the needs of our growing business community.” While taxi-lanes are used to provide access to hangars and storage facilities, taxi-ways are used as direct travel routes to the runways. The rehabilitation of taxi-way Hotel is also in the construction stage, as workers break-up and haul away more than a mile of existing concrete. The concrete will be replaced with a newer stronger surface. This is being done as part of a routine rehabilitation process for taxi-ways.

© Houston Airport System Expansion at Ellington Field is giving a new face to the joint-use airport.

Average shelf life for most taxi-way concrete is 20 years, Zaheri said. Upgrading the taxi-way now opens it up for increased usage and heavier aircraft in the future.

“This is the biggest expansion at Ellington Field since the Houston Airport System took it over in 1984,” said Janet Schaefer, with the properties division of the Houston Airport System.

Schaefer has already overseen the expansion of two major fixed base operators (FBO) at Ellington - RocketMan Jet Center and Southwest Airport Services. Collectively, these two FBOs should add five new hangars to the airport when all phases of construction are complete.

FBOs provide fuel and special services for private aircraft and operators, while so called corporate based operators (CBO) provide services for corporate aircraft.

In addition, Schaefer is working through the details of constructing two new CBOs, a new flight charter company, a flight training school, a warehouse and hangar leasing, new office space and the development of 40 new T-hangars for private leasing. Currently, more than 70 people are on a waiting list for hangar space at Ellington Field.

Retail and restaurant service space is also available at the airport. Preliminary discussions about these projects are now taking place.

Despite the massive number of projects already being developed at Ellington Field, plenty of other acreage and opportunities are still available – roughly 200 acres on the east side are up for lease.

Leasing arrangements for the airport are approved on a case by case basis. Prices for these agreements range from 15 to 25 cents a square foot.

“When the dust settles, what we are going to have is a state-of-the-art facility that will add to the already expansive economic contributions made by the Houston Airport System to the local region,” Perry noted.

Last year, those contributions summed up to more $24 billion in positive economic impact and in excess of 151,000 local jobs.

Even before construction begins to wind down, the taxi-way and taxi-lane improvements are already attracting more tenants to the airport; creating more opportunities to revenue generation and offering improved service for the thousands of people who use Ellington Field.

Copyright © 2007 - Houston Airport System