Assessment presents next hurdle for G-RAMP

With one hurdle cleared, the Georgia-Robins Aerospace Maintenance Partnership moves on to the next.

On Monday, Warner Robins City Council approved an $83,576 bid from Alpharetta-based MACTEC to perform the environmental assessment. The bid was less than half of the $200,000 city authorities originally estimated for the project. The MACTEC bid defeated opposing bids from six other firms.

Art Warner, a MACTEC manager who will be involved with the project, said during a phone interview from MACTEC’s Warner Robins office that the assessment will not be a formality.

“You’re going in with a clean slate,” Warner said. “There’s no premonitions, there’s no idea what the outcome may be.”

MACTEC and the city of Warner Robins will need to finalize the contract, which could happen within a week, and work will “get started very immediately,” Warner said.

The area that will be inspected is large and diverse. A small family cemetery is nearby. During his walk-through of the area last month, Warner saw a large tract with a wealth of wetlands, about 80 percent of the total area, that could be a source of biological diversity. If the project is found to unacceptably threaten endangered species or present “cultural issues,” it won’t be approved, Warner said.

According to the firm’s Web site, MACTEC routinely undertakes similar assessments.

“It’s a standard environmental study,” Warner said.

Don Jarzynka, the point man for G-RAMP, said his office would meet with the MACTEC team “probably once a month” during the course of the assessment. He emphatically said the G-RAMP blueprint would not threaten the cemetery located on the property.

“It’s already been dealt with,” Jarzynka said.

City officials expect the assessment to take about eight to nine months.

The project proposes to build aircraft maintenance hangars on city-owned land adjacent to the north end of Robins Air Force Base.

The city of Warner Robins has touted the project’s potential to create thousands of jobs.

Warner Robins Mayor Chuck Shaheen has identified G-RAMP as his top priority.

Once the assessment is written, it will be submitted to the Air Force for approval. That too may be a long process.

“There are several cycles of reviews,” Warner said.

If MACTEC hands the Air Force a report with a finding of no significant impact (FONSI), and the Air Force approves that finding, then construction on G-RAMP can move forward. If the assessment team finds the project would cause unacceptable impact, “it’s a dead deal,” Jarzynka said. “Unless we can fix anything.”

To contact writer Thomas L. Day, call 744-4489.