When you hear the phrase "bright lights, big city," Las Vegas may be one of the first places that comes to mind. Effective light management, however, is an exacting science that takes into account many variables such as lumens, energy usage, lamp longevity and even light pollution. All of the above and more came into play when Henderson Executive Airport (HND), located in the very shadow of Vegas' world-famous "strip", expanded its airfield ramp area and installed new lighting during a four-month, $4 million project last fall.
There's no easy way-or good time-to shut down an airport for three weeks, especially a regional hub that serves as a major tourism gateway. But officials at Redmond Municipal Airport (RDM) pulled it off with nary a hitch during a recent $18.5 million runway reconstruction project.
When the main runway at Alaska's Yakutat Airport (YAK) experienced damage from harsh hydrogeological conditions, the state's Department of Transportation and Public Facilities tread carefully when crafting a solution. As owner and operator of the airport, the department knows that any project in the lowlands area around the Gulf of Alaska includes extra hurdles-specifically weather and logistics.
In April, McCarran International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas reopened its 14,500-foot primary runway, following a six-month closure. Runway 7L-25R, which handles about one-third of the airport's traffic, had been temporarily closed from October to April during each of the past two years to replace nearly 366,000 square yards of deteriorated asphalt concrete pavement. Now, aircraft operate on 19-inch-thick, full-strength Portland cement concrete pavement.
Armed with magnifying glasses and kneepads, crews spent the fall of 2014 examining the pavement and paint on every airfield at every public airport in Virginia. In total, they surveyed 62 commercial and general aviation facilities. As a result, airport operators and state officials now have a concrete plan to improve the safety and longevity of their runways, taxiways and aprons.
When officials at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) began strategizing about how to comply with the recent runway safety area deadline, they did not expect to end up with a new airfield. One decade later, however, that's essentially what they have.
When officials at Meadows Field Airport (BFL) in Bakersfield, CA, started planning to replace the facility's aging main runway, they expected a price tag of around $10 million. But the initial tally approached $70 million, prompting a bad case of sticker shock.
Sometimes, the phrase "perfect storm" refers to a rare combination of events that leads to disaster. Other times, it describes similarly unusual circumstances that create an amazing outcome. Surprisingly, a recent runway safety area project at Monterey Regional Airport (MRY) met both definitions at various points.
Denver International Airport (DEN) has a new tool at its disposal for managing winter operations: in-pavement sensors that help predict when ice will form on runway and other airfield surfaces. The system includes five clusters of sensors embedded in Runway 17L-35R, one of DEN's four north/south runways, and three more clusters in adjacent high-speed taxiways. The in-pavement sensors were installed as part of a $46.5 million runway resurfacing project.
Kodiak Benny Benson State Airport (ADQ) faced a quandary when devising plans to meet the federal mandate for runway safety areas: There simply wasn't enough land at the island-bound Alaskan facility to add them. So planners got creative and built into the ocean. Contractors moved an estimated 1.1 million tons of rock to fill a portion of the Gulf of Alaska in order to create enough surface area for an engineered material arresting system (EMAS) on one runway and to lengthen another runway to allow for an EMAS bed on its other end.
Research that may lead to more widespread use of 'green' runway pavement materials is underway at the FAA National Airport Pavement & Materials Research Center, in Egg Harbor Township, NJ. Engineers at the new facility use a custom-designed heavy vehicle simulator to test asphalt and other pavement materials at high tire pressures and temperatures.
How does an airport with just one runway maintain operations while rehabilitating that runway' After nine months of intense and highly coordinated work on Runway 18-36, Myrtle Beach International (MYR) has some answers.
