Back Garco will start work on Fairchild jobs soon By Linn Parish The Journal of Business Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, will handle two coming projects at Fairchild Air Force Base worth a total of $5.5 million. Second Lt. David Faggard, a Fairchild spokesman, says Garco is expected to start work later this month on a $4.2 million project that involves adding new lighting to the base’s 13,900 square foot runway. He says that work is expected to be completed in September. In the other project, Garco plans to start work later this month on a $1.3 million replacement of approach aprons for three Washington State Air National Guard hangars at Fairchild, says Hollis Barnett, a project manager for the construction company. The current asphalt aprons, which extend to the hangars from a taxiway that’s connected to Fairchild’s main runway, will be torn out and replaced with concrete aprons. In all, Barnett says, the project will involve laying about 4,600 cubic yards of concrete. Garco also will lay about 350,000 square feet of asphalt around the aprons and hangars. The hangars each have about 35,000 square feet of floor space. The Air National Guard unit will move its aircraft temporarily to Spokane International Airport later this month and is scheduled to return to its Fairchild location in mid-August, after the paving work is completed. As the Air Force said earlier, the project involves installing a series of touchdown lights at each end of the runway and a line of lights down the middle of the runway, and the runway will be closed from June to mid-August while lights are installed in its center. During that 2 ½ month period, the KC-135 tankers based at Fairchild will operate out of March Air Force Base, in Riverside, California. The aircraft will be able to land on and take off from Fairchild’s airstrip here during the first and third stages of the project. Back