The regional airport in Dallesport is increasingly busy, and new facilities are in the works to handle the load. Construction will start in the spring on a heated hangar that will allow LifeFlight to keep its helicopters and other essential equipment out of the weather.
The regional airport in Dallesport is increasingly busy, and new facilities are in the works to handle the load. Construction will start in the spring on a heated hangar that will allow LifeFlight to keep its helicopters and other essential equipment out of the weather.
As operations at the Columbia Gorge Regional Airport continue to expand and diversify, new facilities are on the drawing board to keep up with increasing demand.
“With the growing popularity of the airport with the jet crowd, additional storage hangars have been requested,” explained Tim McGlothlin, a member of the Regional Airport Board and The Dalles City Council. “All hangars are filled, and a waiting list for empty space at the airport is a commodity.”
The latest airport infrastructure improvement project about to take off will be a 15,000 square foot, heated “flex hangar” that is expected to be built in the spring. Public safety was a key driver behind this project, as LifeFlight – the organization that flies critically injured or ill patients to hospitals to allow them to be treated faster and more effectively – needed a heated hangar to protect its helicopters and other critical equipment, especially in the winter months.
“The problem is ice getting on rotors,” said The Dalles Mayor Steve Lawrence.
“They need to be out of the weather, and we’ve been working with them to make a better place for them,” said Rolf Anderson, one of the airport’s managers.
Anderson said about half of the hangar will be used for LifeFlight
operations, with the other half being available for another tenant.
“We have a waiting list for people wanting to put planes in hangars,” Anderson said.
McGlothlin pointed out that the hangar LifeFlight is currently using is too small for LifeFlight’s aircraft, and does not provide protection from snow, rain, and ice.
“The de-icing capability was a high priority,” said Amanda Hoey, executive director of the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District (MCEDD), which has been assisting with grant applications for the $1.8 million project since 2014.
The airport located in Dallesport is a joint venture between the city of The Dalles and Klickitat County in Washington. Most of the projects at the facility are being funded with federal or state grants, although the city of The Dalles and Klickitat County are required to come up with matching funds to obtain the government money.
“We worked with Klickitat County and The Dalles in developing the application for grant funding to help move the process forward and meet all the federal requirements,” Hoey explained. She said the MCEDD grant application went to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, which provides grants to help pay for “transformative projects” that will impact regional economies in economically distressed areas.
“Construction will occur this spring and be completed next year,” Lawrence said.
“It is being paid mostly through a grant, with The Dalles and Klickitat County splitting the small match.”
According to Chuck Covert, an airport manager, the federal grant totals $625,000.
In addition to the heated hangar, Covert said there will be living quarters for the LifeFlight personnel who will be on active status waiting for emergency calls.
“It should be a very nice facility for them,” Covert said. Covert added that he is hopeful the project will be completed as soon as possible once weather breaks in the spring.
“We would have liked to have had this done last year, but we’ll get there,” he said.
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