When it came time for Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) to reconstruct its only runway, the management team got creative. Instead of resigning to an extended shutdown that would have effectively put the North Carolina airport out of business for an extensive period, they decided to build a new taxiway and use it as a temporary runway while the existing runway is demolished and reconstructed.
Although Renton Municipal Airport/Clayton Scott Field (RNT) is classified as a small general aviation reliever airport, its traffic is unusually taxing on airfield pavements. Every 737 produced at the adjacent Boeing factory takes its maiden flight off RNT's single runway; and to access the runway, the heavy aircraft must traverse the airport's 3,500-foot Taxiway B.
With average snow accumulations of 4 1/2 feet per winter, snow removal is serious business at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP). Crews plow, blow, broom and deice more than 28 million square feet in airfield pavement alone - the equivalent of a two-lane highway running from the Twin Cities to New Orleans.
Executives at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) recently became official fans of "not throwing the baby out with the bathwater." By replacing the workhorse center strip of Runway 8L-26R and leaving its seldom-used outer edges undisturbed, the bustling hub not only saved time and money on construction, it also minimized operational disruptions and related costs for ATL's carriers.
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) completed a two-phase runway safety area (RSA) project in early August (2014) ' beating its own schedule by one month and finishing more than a year ahead of the congressionally mandated Dec. 31, 2015, deadline for all federally obligated and Part 139 airports. The new safety features, estimated to cost about $223 million, are designed to significantly reduce personal injury and aircraft damage in the event of runway overruns, undershoots and veer-offs, per FAA Advisory Circular 150/5300-13.
