Alaska Airlines breaks ground on $40M Anchorage hangar

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska Airlines formally broke ground Monday on construction of a $40 million aircraft maintenance hangar in Anchorage.

Officials with the Seattle-based airline say the planned 105,000-square-foot structure is part of a $100 million investment in Alaska that includes new cargo planes and rural terminal improvements.

On Monday, airline officials and state and local officials were on hand to unveil the design for the Anchorage hangar, which will be nearly three times the size of the current structure. Officials also dug shovels into a rectangle of soil at the facility's future site.

Construction is slated for completion in summer 2018. The project is expected to employ 150 at the height of construction.

Anchorage-based architecture firm McCool Carlson Green and general contractor Kiewit were brought in to design and build the hangar.