A national consulting firm of airport specialists
is making its presence known in Mississippi. Last October, Denver-based
Airport Development Group (ADG) Inc., opened an office in Jackson
to better serve its growing list of Southern clients.
“ADG has been in business 21 years next month, and during
most of that time, our firm had been regional, primarily serving
airports in Colorado and surrounding states,” said ADG’s
Dana Hartshorn, P.E., principal and electrical engineer. “Occasionally,
when airport managers we’ve worked with moved to other
locations, we’d follow them. That’s what led to
our work in Mississippi.”
Around 1996, ADG received a call from an airport manager who
had moved from Kansas to the Stennis International Airport in
Bay St. Louis. He wasn’t getting the response from consultants
that he was accustomed to and requested ADG’s assistance,
said Mike Corkern P.E., project manager of the Mississippi office.
“We’ve been working at the Stennis Airport ever
since,” he said. “We enjoyed it so much, we focused
on marketing to other airports in Mississippi. We wanted to
be a part of the community.”
Also in the mid-1990s, ADG began handling projects at the Kennedy
Spac Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The firm also focused its
efforts further west, serving as project manager for the Wendover
Airport in Utah, which involved collaborating with more than
two dozen organiza- tions. As a result, a dormant general aviation
airport was transformed into the number two commercial airport
in Utah, second only to Salt Lake International. The firm opened
a satellite office in Utah to monitor performance and to also
service clients in Nevada. “We’re one of a handful
of airport-only specialty firms around the country,” explained
ADG’s Jim Sirhall, principal and planning manager. “In
Mississippi, there are a few multidisciplinary firms that handle
airport infrastructure work, but the rules keep changing all
the time, and the market needed a consulting firm with specialized
expertise.”
Among ADG’s comprehensive services: capital improvement
projects, planning, engineering, construction, operations, financial
planning and budgets, business planning, marketing, airline
negotiations, tenant relations and leases, environment issues,
airport certification and land acquisition. The firm also handles
issues related to industrial/cargo ports and FAA/state coordination.
|
|
“The main thing that’s affected our
industry in the last several years is the significant increase
in the budget for the federal funding program that’s been
in place since 1947,” said Sirhall. “It has expanded
significantly over the last few years, starting with the Air
21 bill, which was passed around 2000 and added a lot more dollars.
The previous year’s budget had been about $1.9 billion.
Starting in 2000, it jumped to almost $3 billion. This year,
it will be about $3.5 billion. Congress finally realized that
airports needed more money to keep up. Interestingly, post-9/11,
smaller airports have been getting more attention because of
additional security needs, and those are the ones we’d
been focusing on all along.”
Approximately 90% of the firm’s portfolio involves work
at existing airports. The balance represents new airports, such
as the one built a few years ago on an Indian reservation. “It’s
like highways,” compared Sirhall. “You don’t
get new ones very often, but you have maintenance and upgrade
needs. Airports are a smaller version of that.” In Mississippi,
ADG is reworking a taxiway to accommodate larger aircraft at
the Stennis International Airport. The firm is also working
on a project to completely rebuild the Copiah County Airport
in Crystal Springs.
“We’re working on the John Bell Williams Airport
at Hinds Community College, which is poised for a lot of growth,”
added Sirhall. “The terminal in Madison is in the initial
stages of being revamped, and we’re working on a planning
study for Greenwood. We’re also talking to a number of
airlines about getting new service into airports.” Sirhall
said the firm’s “secret” to successfully branching
out nationwide is “that we emphasize teaming.” “Mississippi
is a good example of teaming with other consultants,”
he said. “We’re acting as a subcontractor in some
incidences, and we employ subcontractors, such as local surveyors
and geotechnical firms and civil engineering firms, to help
us do things the Mississippi way. What works in Colorado isn’t
necessarily the best engineering course |
