Work on a fuel facility and a cross-docking facility at the Prince George Airport is expected to resume within the next few weeks.
Prince George Airport Authority (PGAA) chief executive officer John Gibson said Thursday the site has been logged and once the road ban comes off - expected to occur in early June - contractors will be able to take the logs away and bring in the heavy equipment.
"They're still on target to complete the cargo facility by the end of the year and the tank farm by the end of this summer," Gibson said.
The two projects are considered the finishing touches the airport needs to convince cargo carriers transporting goods between Asia and North America to refuel at the airport following completion of an 11,451-foot runway in September 2008 at a $36-million cost.
To hold 600,000 litres, the fuel facility will be large enough to service six jumbo-size aircraft a day.
The fuel will be transported by train to an offloading facility, completed this past fall, at the BCR industrial site and then trucked by Prince George's Sands Bulk Transport to the airport. Sands is responsible for the facility's entire $2 million cost.
Similarly, Western Star Ventures Ltd., also locally based, will be the owner and operator of the cross-dock facility which it is building at a cost of $2 million.
The 25,000-square-foot structure is designed for cargo storage, inspection and transshipment as well as equipment staging for north end operations.
Earlier this month, PGAA hired a director of cargo development, Allan Ridgway, who has 40 years experience in air, rail, trucking and ocean freight.
Once the facilities are completed, Gibson said Ridgway will be able to showcase them to prospective customers.
"Last week, Al Ridgway and myself were in Europe for a world air-cargo trade show and we had a chance to update all the major carriers on the status of where we are with our facilities," Gibson said. "They're all basically saying in varying degrees, 'you need the facilities before you see us.'"
