Reagan National Rebuilds Busiest Runway in the U.S. 

All major runway projects are challenging undertakings. That’s a given. Some, however, are in a league of their own.

The recent $110 million reconstruction of Runway 1-19 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) is a great example. As the primary runway at the airport closest to the U.S. capital, 1-19 happens to be the busiest in the nation, averaging 820 arrivals and departures a day. Compounding the complexity, it’s 7,169 feet long and more than 80 years old.

Despite regular resurfacing performed as needed throughout the years, Runway 1-19 and DCA’s secondary strip (15-33) needed deeper rehabilitation to provide a pavement structure that could support future traffic for 20 or more years. The most recent renovation of 1-19 had occurred in 2011, when the airport replaced up to 3 inches of the top asphalt surface and improved the centerline lights and edge lights.

But the airport’s heavy stream of traffic eventually took its toll. “The planes kept getting bigger and heavier, and this latest top-surface replacement just was not doing the job,” explains Priyam Shah, Construction Department manager for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA). “It was obvious that a major reconstruction would be needed.”

To explore its various options, MWAA turned to Crawford, Murphy & Tilly (CMT), an engineering consultant that has completed many projects at DCA over the years. Its team began the design process in July 2021 with background geotechnical work and an evaluation of the electrical systems.

Subconsultant RDM International cut cores into the pavement to measure deterioration at different depths, and subconsultant E2CR completed deeper subgrade borings to characterize materials beneath the asphalt. RDM International also assessed the condition of electrical conduits and cables. “By December 2021, we knew we had to replace centerline lights. And for pavement replacement, we developed detailed options to redo either 3 inches, 8 inches or 16 inches of the pavement surface,” Shah relates.

From January to May 2022, CMT engineers developed detailed logistics for each of the three alternatives, and presented them to MWAA and the airlines. Consensus was reached that eight inches of existing pavement would be removed using a deep milling process, and a mobile batch plant would need to be built on the airfield to control the quality and production rates of the new asphalt pavement.

The airport also made two major requests: no daytime runway closures, and project completion within two construction seasons. All parties agreed that paving work would shut down during the winter months (basically November to April) to avoid placing asphalt during cold weather.

Leaders from MWAA and CMT had extensive negotiations with airline representatives about how long the runway would have to be closed to complete the work in a two-year window. “After many conversations, we agreed that closing for seven hours a night, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., would be the best plan,” says Rich Thuma, aviation project manager for CMT.

Moving forward, Shah says the two major hurdles that often delay construction projects—budget approval and FAA sign-off—proceeded seamlessly. FAA agreed to fund $32.6 million of the $110 million budget, and the airport’s capital construction program paid for the remaining larger portion.

Shah describes FAA as being very supportive from the very beginning of the project. “They told us they were very pleased that we were proactive in approaching this issue, with a good long-term plan and vision,” he says. “They were very helpful in helping us coordinate some of the requirements needed to proceed, such as the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) directives, reviewing all of the permitting paperwork, and environmental assessments.”

Crews also installed new centerline lights during the project.

Not surprisingly, representatives for the eight primary air carriers operating at DCA provided a lot of feedback about how impending runway closures would impact their schedules. “The airlines just wanted us to be very specific in our needs and our ask,” Shah relates. “They wanted us to have a contingency plan in terms of potential problems that could delay the runway opening in the morning. I believe we alleviated most of their concerns about that.

“In the end, everyone wanted safer and more efficient runways, without having big problems that would shut the runway down for weeks or months.”

Flexibility for Late Arrivals

Airport officials assured airlines that the Operations Department would do its best to accommodate arrivals delayed by bad weather. If a plane was going to be only 10 or 15 minutes late, Operations would ask the project contractor to keep the runway open to receive that flight. After the runway was closed for the night, late-arriving flights had the option of using Runway 15-33, or diverting to nearby Dulles International (IAD). Most airlines also had other pre-established diversion airports on the East Coast they could use.

After construction began in April 2023, weekly progress meetings were held with MWAA and other stakeholders, usually on Tuesdays at 7 a.m. Attendees included representatives from the airport’s Safety, Quality Control and Operations departments, as well as team leaders from CMT and Lagan Aviation, the primary contractor.

Rebuilding the X

One of the biggest challenges was planning work at the intersection of runways 1-19 and 15-33, because it required shutting down both runways for several hours. “We had to establish separate ground rules for this,” Thuma remarks. “This was critical to stakeholders and the airlines. We asked them for the best time of year to shut down, for both the first and second construction seasons.”

The first shutdown started in early June 2023 and lasted to mid-July 2023, spanning 42 days. During this hard closure period, both runways were out of service from 12 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. Nightly closures during the second construction season occurred from late May to early June 2024

“The airlines knew far in advance that these runways would be shut down during those periods,” Thuma advises. “They also made sacrifices, using smaller aircraft that could hold fewer people during those periods.”

Prepping the Field

As primary contractor for the project, Lagan Aviation worked closely with MWAA and the DCA Airfield Operations Department to ensure construction was performed in a timely manner each night.

The company, which specializes in paving commercial and military airfields, spent four months planning and coordinating with project stakeholders to prepare for the start of construction on April 17, 2023.

Although the firm is headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland, its U.S. division, based in Sterling, VA, was in charge of this project.

“Basically, each night was a mini project,” states Lagan Operations Director James Keogh. “We had to mill out 800 tons of asphalt, and take away 800 tons of the old asphalt off site.”

To speed the process, crews used a special milling machine that could mill down the full 8-inch depth in a single pass.

One of the selling points that helped Lagan win the contract was its ability to provide a mobile asphalt plant on the airfield (vs. trucking in all the needed material).

The plant was “set built” on about 3½ acres at the south end of the airfield, at the end of Runway 4-22. Lagan also constructed a pair of 200-ton silos to provide crews with 400 tons of available storage each night.

Additional asphalt was produced by Holcim, which has a plant in nearby Clinton, MD. Most nights, it supplied the first 400 tons of asphalt. The aggregate material and liquid polymer bitumen were mixed at Holcim’s plant and transported to the airfield each evening. (The bitumen was specially designed for temperatures from 180 degrees F to minus 80 degrees F.)

After arriving at the project site, trucks discharged mixed asphalt into a material transfer vehicle, which remixed the asphalt to improve temperature consistency and provide a consistent delivery to the asphalt paver, resulting in a smoother asphalt surface. Then the empty trucks would refill with asphalt from Lagan’s on-site plant to provide the second 400 tons needed for that night’s paving.

“Making the aggregate mix is like baking a cake,” Keogh states. “Everything is mixed in a set proportion, and then the bitumen gets added to bind it all together. This surface should withstand any weather conditions and the constant pounding of the hundreds of aircraft that use DCA every day.”

Night Moves

At 6:30 each work night, Lagan project leaders met virtually with airport operations personnel to review tasks for that evening. In particular, they would confirm which area of the runway would be worked on, and what access routes to use. The team also discussed feedback from aircraft operators, and then performed a follow-up briefing for the airlines to confirm when crews would be closing the runway. A final briefing was held at 9:30 p.m. with Airfield Operations to reconfirm key details.

The Lagan production teams arrived around 9 p.m. to stage supplies and make sure all machines were ready to go. Crews would typically report at the staging area around 10:45 p.m.

Reconstructing the intersection of runways 1-19 and 15-33, outlined here in light blue dashed lines, required temporary overnight closures.

At 11 p.m., the first order of business was setting up construction barriers to prevent crewmembers from accidentally crossing into other areas of the live airfield and to stop aircraft from coming into the work area.

Each night, crews were expected to complete their tasks by 5:30 a.m. Then, Airfield Operations personnel would perform an inspection, checking for foreign object debris (FOD) and making sure pavement markings were in order. “If a particular job was finished beforehand and the equipment used for that task was no longer needed, we would take it off the construction area immediately,” Keogh adds.

Mission Accomplished

Construction finished on time, in December 2024, and on budget at $110 million.

Completing the project while minimizing disruption to airlines required dedication and coordination from airport executives, the airlines, the FAA and key contractors performing the work, says Shah.

“The new pavement surface on both runways made it through last winter [2024-2025] without any major issues,” he reports. “The airlines and our Operations people have all provided us with some positive feedback. We expect the reconstructed surfaces should hold up for a good 15 to 20 years.”