Sitka’s airport improvement project is slightly ahead of schedule and on budget. That’s according to airport terminal manager Joseph Bea, who shared an update on the project with the Sitka Assembly on July 9. Bea said they’ve spent around $4 million so far, around one third of the money needed to complete the first phase of the project. That includes the purchase of Sitka’s only escalator.
“Our escalator just arrived on site and that’s a $400,000 piece of equipment, and we’re preparing to install that,” Bea said. “We’ve got a lot of equipment stored on site, and that’s why it’s leaning a little bit towards ahead of schedule.”
Bea said most of the underground utility installation is complete. Soon, the construction team will decommission the jet bridge, which means airline passengers will board airplanes from the ground for the better part of the next year.
“So please wear appropriate footwear, because you will be walking out of the terminal building, across the airfield and on the plane,” Bea said.
New construction includes an additional two-story building with expanded departure lounge, a skybridge connecting the new building to the original terminal building which will be remodeled with a new baggage claim system. While Sitka won’t keep its yellow jet bridge, Mayor Eisenbeisz asked if the community could keep another aspect of the old airport terminal, for nostalgia’s sake.
“We don’t want to completely get rid of all of our old airport are we gonna keep that massively loud and awkward baggage alarm?” Eisenbeisz asked. “Because I think we have to, you know, the old yellow jet bridge is one thing, but we’ve got to keep that alarm.”
Bea said he’d see if they could hold onto the buzzer.
The city and state are partnering on the project, since the state owns Sitka’s airport, but the city owns the terminal building. The airport terminal project is expected to cost around $40 million dollars, largely funded through federal grants. Bea said if they stay on schedule, the new departures building will be operational by next May. Then they’ll begin remodeling the existing building, with plans to wrap up the second phase by the spring of 2026.
