MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury planning office has approved two substantial new storage buildings in town, one that will house steel fabrication activities at J.P. Carrara & Sons, the other to provide storage for maintenance equipment at the Middlebury State Airport.
Plans call for J.P. Carrara & Sons to erect a 17,000-square-foot, pre-cast concrete building on its property off Case Street. The building will become the company’s hub for rebar fabrication, the centerpiece of which will be a recently acquired new automatic rebar bending machine.
Company General Manager P.J. Carrara said the new structure will not only allow the company to consolidate its rebar fabrication in one spot, it will also provide storage space for steel construction material, some of which currently has to be kept outdoors.
Rebar is the steel component used to reinforce concrete. J.P. Carrara & Sons is one of the biggest manufacturers of pre-cast concrete structures in the state. The company is currently playing a major role in the building of the Cross Street Bridge in downtown Middlebury.
“Hopefully this will make us more efficient,” Carrara said of the new facility, which could be erected by the end of this spring.
AIRPORT STRUCTURE
Also cleared for takeoff is a 2,464-square-foot, steel storage building at the Middlebury State Airport that will accommodate winter and summer maintenance equipment. Roger Barry, facilities manager for the Vermont Department of Transportation, explained that the state had been renting equipment storage space at the airport. The new facility — to be financed with around $325,000 from the Federal Aviation Administration — will give the state its own dedicated storage area.
Barry said he hopes to get out bids for the project within the next two weeks. If all proceeds according to plan, the storage structure would be erected this summer, according to Berry.
Area residents are likely to see other additions to the Middlebury airport infrastructure in the months to come. Middlebury Town Planner Fred Dunnington said the state has received permitting to string a fence around the perimeter of the airport, in order to prevent animals and recreational vehicles form straying into the path of incoming/departing aircraft. He said plans call for the fence to be around six feet tall, and a neighbor has successfully lobbied for a gap in the fence to preserve his view, according to Dunnington.
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].