Replacing the Whitehorse airport’s main runway is now set to cost about $30 million more than the highest of initial estimates.

The budget for runway work at the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport was laid out in the 2023-2024 five-year capital plan. Between $115 million and $130 million was allocated for the project over three years.

On May 19, the Yukon government awarded Colorado’s Flatiron Corp. the contract to repave and spruce up the runway at a cost of $160 million.

Besides fixing up the runway itself, additional features such as lighting will be replaced, according to the Yukon government.

Site preparation can now begin, and the project is expected to be completed by early 2026.

A spokesperson for the government touched on some of the reasons for the higher-than-expected cost.

“Bid prices have come in higher than anticipated due to the impacts of inflation on construction material,” Madison Guthrie, of the Department of Highways and Public Works, wrote in an email to the Star.

“It’s also related to increased transportation infrastructure spending in Canada and U.S.A.”

Stacey Hassard, the Yukon Party’s Highways and Public Works critic, brought the contract award to light in a news release, criticizing the government for a lack of transparency in the process.

“The government should inform Yukoners about the winning bid on one of the Yukon’s most expensive capital projects,” Hassard’s statement reads.

A spokesperson for the Yukon Party added to Hassard’s statement when specifics of the cost became known.

“We feel this information should have been made public,” Tim Kucharuk said in an email to the Star.

“It is concerning that the project is already $30 million over-budget even before it begins.”

Though the government has not yet officially announced the successful bid, the contract award with the amount is available online through the Yukon government’s contract registry website.

A spokesperson for the government’s cabinet communications staff said in a statement to the Star the government had planned to make the announcement, but was waiting for a representative from the federal government to be able to attend.

They said this delay was linked to the July 26 shuffling of federal cabinet portfolios.

“As the Government of Canada is a key partner in this project, the cabinet shuffle impacts the timeline for an official, joint announcement and delayed a previously scheduled trip for our federal counterparts to Whitehorse,” a statement from cabinet communications reads.

It is unclear at this point how much of the tab the federal government may be picking up.

Flatiron Corp. is a major infrastructure firm with projects in both the U.S. and Canada.

Some of its most well-known Canadian projects include the Port Mann Bridge, Quebec’s Champlain Bridge and the Site C dam.

Flatiron is hiring locally for the project, according to company spokesperson Emmanuelle Roux.

It’s currently looking for everything from a project manager to heavy equipment operators and craft workers.

Guthrie said they expect minimal disruption to the public during the construction, though it will impact the type of aircraft that is able to land in Whitehorse for the next two years.

The airport has two runways, and during the construction the smaller of the two will be the only one in use.

This means the largest planes able to land at the airport will be Boeing 737s until the project is finished.

Air North, one of the airport’s most frequent users, does not have any planes larger than that.

“It’ll present some operational challenges, we’ll be using the secondary runway, which is shorter and narrower than the primary runway,” Air North president Joe Sparling told the Star early this afternoon.

“But at this point, we’re pretty comfortable that we can take any challenges that come up in stride.”

The most major impact would have been the disruption of Condor’s weekly summertime direct flights between Whitehorse and Germany, which use larger Boeing 767s.

Due to a coming change in the aircraft Condor uses, however, the service would have been suspended anyway.

Condor is upgrading to Airbus A330s, which the current runway cannot accommodate.

Additional improvements beyond the repaving are needed for those planes to be able to land in Whitehorse.

“From summer 2024, Condor will only operate brand-new A330neo,” said Condor spokesperson Johanna Tillman in an email.

“We are in discussions with all airports on the handling of this type of aircraft and possible preparations and conditions for the A330neo.”

It is still unknown whether the necessary improvements will eventually be made to the Whitehorse airport for those larger planes to land.

Condor travellers will need to connect to Whitehorse through Vancouver or Edmonton starting in 2024.

Tillman said flights will be available via Air North connections and be comparable to current direct flight prices.

Travellers will be able to fly from Germany via Vancouver five times per week and via Edmonton twice a week.

Sparling said this doesn’t really change much, as these flights are already coming in to those cities.

“We’ll just make sure our schedule matches with theirs,” he said. “It’s not much different from what’s available right now.”