14
TERMINALS  
September 2026      AirportImprovement.com
FCA
“As passenger growth snowballed, we 
quickly realized we that we needed more 
everything,” Ratkowski explains. 
The airport board approved a construction 
joint venture bid in February 2020. Reno-
based Q&D Construction was selected as 
general contractor in tandem with Swank 
Enterprises, a local firm with a history in 
Montana that traces back to 1960. 
The two companies used a Construction 
Manager at Risk, or CMAR, process while 
Mead & Hunt served as the design lead and 
provided oversight of construction processes 
such as plan submittal and documentation.
Initially, the project was packaged as 
one large contract, but the airport later split 
work into three phases to better manage 
resources during the pandemic. Phase One, 
valued at $70 million, opened in March 
2024 and included half of the Great Hall, 
three new passenger boarding bridges 
with accompanying holdrooms and other 
passenger and operational spaces. 
The next phase delivered the second half 
of the Great Hall, including ticketing counters 
and kiosks; another new boarding bridge; 
and the replacement of two older boarding 
bridges. It wrapped up earlier this year and 
included $50 million in renovations and 
additions. The $10 million third phase, built 
concurrently, included the new baggage 
handling systems.
“There was a ton of 
infrastructure work—it 
wasn’t a remodel or a 
little add-on,” says Q&D 
Aviation Vice President 
LaMonte Forgays. “There 
is maybe one wall we 
left that has its old finish. 
Everything else is completely new.”
Scheduling construction around ongoing 
airport operations required complex phasing, 
he notes. Other challenges included a lack of 
available labor at times, as well as materials 
shortages stemming from COVID-related 
supply chain disruptions.
Ratkowski recalls watching the cost of 
steel soar before the team chose to shift 
much of the structural framing to heavy 
timber instead. But even that workaround 
became difficult when border closures 
hampered imports of wood from nearby 
Canadian mills.
LaMONTE FORGAYS
PHOTO: HUNTER D’ANTUONO | FLATHEAD BEACON 
The passenger checkpoint was expanded 
and upgraded with Analogic ConnectCT 
machines for screening carry-on items.  

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