$570,488 cost put on airport sign work
The first phase of a project to upgrade signs and install new ones, including replacing all 41 overhead signs, at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field will cost at least $570,488.
That’s the price the only bidder, Flynco Inc. of Little Rock, submitted to do the work, which officials at the state’s largest airport say will help motorists to better navigate the airport property and will replace signs that clearly have seen better days.
The 41 overhead signs being replaced are about 18 years old and were installed when the parking deck, which was completed in 2001, was being built, airport spokesman Shane Carter said.
The signs are in “bad shape,” said Bryan Malinowski, the airport’s acting executive director.
Sun and the elements have left many of the signs faded with cracked lettering and peeling paint, rendering some of the signs almost illegible.
“The intent of the signage program is to provide cohesive, clear and aesthetic wayfinding messaging throughout the airport property,” according to a project summary.
Seventy percent of the work will be done by Creative Design Concepts of Van Buren, a federally designated disadvantaged business enterprise that will provide the actual signs. The Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission, which sets airport policy, has established as a goal that 15% of all prime contracts go to disadvantaged businesses, which are controlled by members of minority groups, women or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.
The work includes modifying or replacing all overhead signs in the public areas of the airport, including all overhead signs on Airport Drive; providing guidance to the new parking for people with disabilities and the pickup location for transportation
companies such as Uber and Lyft; and providing standards to guide future sign installations and modifications.
Clinton National officials rejected a $521,990 bid as too high — also by Flynco — to replace all the ground-mounted signs, of which there are nearly 150. The bid was too far above the engineers’ cost estimate for the project, which was $330,000, Malinowski said.
The project began more than a year ago when the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission enlisted Micheal Baker International, a Pittsburgh engineering consulting company with offices in Little Rock, to investigate, survey, design and prepare the bid specification for the sign work at a cost of $61,450.
The engineering firm worked closely with airport
staff members, Carter said.
The project went out for bid late last year, but the single bid came in too high and was rejected. At that point, airport officials decided to rebid the work as two packages — one for the overhead signs and one for the ground-mounted signs.
Airport officials expect to prepare another bid package later this year for the ground-mounted signs.
The final phase will replace all parking signs. That will begin next year, Carter said.
The commission’s lease and consultant selection committee voted Tuesday to send the staff recommendation on the Flynco bid to the full commission for approval. The commission’s monthly meeting is Tuesday.
Malinowski said he would have preferred to see more competition for the work, but several factors deterred bidders.
The signs cannot be replaced
all at once because of airport traffic. Instead, the signs will be replaced one at a time, which deterred bigger companies used to replacing signs on highways.
Flynco already has staged personnel and equipment at the airport for an upgrade of the pre-security area of the concourse. That project includes replacing one elevator, adding another and replacing both escalators.