EVEN as other major projects may temporarily be shelved due to global financial meltdown, Misamis Oriental Governor Oscar S. Moreno remains optimistic the P7.853-billion Laguindingan Airport Project (LADP) in the province will be completed as scheduled in January 2012.

"We are ahead of schedule. And, by the end of this year, I expect the accomplishment to reach 60 percent," Moreno said in his weekly television and radio interviews.

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He said he believes that the progress in the civil works, access road construction and in the relocation of affected families have already proven the skeptics wrong.

"I, too, sounded cynical about it in the past," he confided but quickly added that the on-site visit of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in January 10, 2006 was the most significant event for the airport project.

Moreno said he is anticipating discussions on what will be the official name of the airport in Laguindingan, once completed, and he would willingly leave that to the wisdom of those who would have a say in it, later on.

As of May 17, this year, the project manager reported that the civil works on the entire airport site and the construction of the 7,200-square-meter passenger terminal building have a combined 41.91 percent accomplishment. Based on the accomplishment report, the project registered a 12.73 percent positive slippage or 5.33 months ahead of the original schedule.

On the construction of the airport's 4.4-kilometer four-lane access road, the work under Phase 1 (as of May 15, 2009) was already 96.88 percent accomplished while the Phase 2 was 85.32 percent done. The two phases both involve the embankment, sub-grade and sub-base course laying, drainage while the second phase includes clearing and grubbing and limestone excavation.

The access road, which connects the airport site to the Iligan-Cagayan de Oro-Butuan highway, covers an area of 24.11 hectares with total project cost of P187.765 million and is being undertaken by Vicente T. Lao Construction.

An airport layout plan shows that the LADP consists of a 2,100-meter x 45-meter runway, 23-meter x 260-meter taxiways, main apron measuring some 130 meters x 355 meters (five aircraft bays, laboratory building, air traffic control tower with the operation building. Other structures will include a cargo terminal building, maintenance building, antenna farm, fuel farm with a pumping area, crash fire and rescue area, a reserved hangar area, a guardhouse, and a two chamber sewerage and waste-water treatment plant. The main airport area will have a 12,000-meter perimeter fence.

Construction work is being undertaken by contractor Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co. Ltd. (HHIC), a South Korean firm.

The DOTC PMO has also hired the technical services of Yooshin Engineering Corporation through its local counterpart, Schema Konsult Inc. (Press release)