AIRPORT EXPANSION REACHES MILESTONE

After years of planning and months of construction, dignitaries and elected officials gathered at Charles Schulz Sonoma County Airport Wednesday to mark an important milestone.

The last piece of structural steel was laid on the skeleton of the new expanded terminal, which was marked with a “topping off” ceremony. Those in attendance were able to sign the final steel beam, the last of 165 tons of metal that will form the bones of the structure that will triple the size of the terminal when complete around the end of this year.

Among those in attendance were both of the North Bay’s U.S. Congressmen, whose work helped to bring in federal dollars for terminal expansion.

The $40 million construction project has been complex, with work underway even as the airport saw traffic return to, and at times exceed, pre-pandemic levels over the past several months.

The terminal’s public spaces will begin to open in September…a timeline pushed back by recent delays, and the project is expected to be fully complete by February of 2023.