Work on the Grand Coulee Dam Airport’s runway will begin Sept. 18, Grant County Port District 7 commissioners learned at their meeting Aug. 30.

Commissioners also got more good news when their engineering firm, TO Engineers, reported that the successful bid of $248,000 for the runway work came in well below the engineer’s estimate of $319,000. The low bid was awarded to Road Products, Inc., from Spokane.

The total cost of the project, including engineering and management costs, will be $288,759.

The project to repair major cracks in the 4,200-foot paved runway will take about 30 days. A pre-work meeting with Road Products, Inc., was conducted last Friday.

Cracks in the runway have allowed water to get under the pavement allowing some erosion of materials, which has been a concern of commissioners for a couple of years.

Port District President James Keene said that the runway will be closed during the time that men and equipment are making repairs. When the repair work is complete, the painting of runway stripes will follow in about 30 days, Keene said.

The project is 90-percent funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, with 5 percent matched from the Washington State Transportation Administration (aviation division) and 5 percent paid by Port District 7. The project was budgeted figuring funds of $288,000 from the FAA grant, $16,000 from the DOT, and $16,000 from the Port District.