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AirportImprovement.com      May | June 2026
RAMPS 
PCW 
PCW is a U.S. Customs Port of Entry 
Landing Rights airport and also the main 
air hub serving the Lake Erie Islands, a 
chain of archipelagic islands with luxury 
homes, beaches, wineries and other 
attractions that draw tourists year-round. 
Transport to the islands is only possible by 
boat or air service.
Over the past 15 years, PCW has 
experienced substantial growth—in part 
due to the 2013 closure of the private 
Griffing Sandusky Airport just 16 miles 
away. “If you want to get to north central 
Ohio, there is no better general aviation 
airport supporting business aviation 
needs,” says PCW 
Airport Director Clay 
Finken. In addition, it 
is the largest airport 
between Toledo and 
Cleveland, and can 
accommodate aircraft 
up to Global 7000s. 
With the recent traffic growth came 
an increased need for aircraft parking, 
especially during summer, which is peak 
season for the Lake Erie Islands. Another 
particularly busy time for the airport 
comes in late spring, when an annual 
youth basketball tournament draws more 
than 300 teams to the nearby Cedar Point 
Sports Center.
In recent years, business jets carrying 
college scouts to the tournament crowded 
PCW’s small apron. “We were playing 
‘airplane Jenga’ to get everybody in 
and parked safely on our ramp,” Finken 
remarks, referring to the game where 
players stack wooden blocks in a tower 
and then try to remove pieces without 
collapsing the whole structure.
The airport’s 2020 master plan 
identified 30,000 square yards of land 
for aircraft parking to be developed in 
phases, and the initial 5,000 square yards 
was constructed that same year. When 
Finken went back to the FAA in 2023 to 
request funding for another 5,000 square 
yards of parking apron, FAA officials 
suggested applying for enough money 
to complete the remaining 25,000 or so 
square yards all at once.
Navigating Challenges
Because the new swath of apron is 
situated between two taxiways, PCW did 
not have to suspend or even reduce flights 
during construction. 
Another factor working in the airport’s 
favor was that its project team was 
selected through a competitive process 
and had also successfully completed 
the first project phase in 2020—C&S 
Companies for engineering, Mark 
Schaffer Excavating & Trucking as 
general contractor, and Smith Paving & 
Excavating as concrete subcontractor.
However, even projects that seem 
straightforward include challenges. A 
main concern at PCW was diverting 
groundwater to a retention pond beside 
one of the taxiways. 
“The whole area is flat, so it was 
important that we made sure the 
stormwater didn’t cause problems 
somewhere else,” comments Ted Mann, 
project manager with Mark Schaffer 
Excavating & Trucking. 
It was especially important to make 
sure expanding the 
parking apron didn’t 
create standing water 
that could potentially 
attract wildlife to 
the airfield, specifies 
Maria Benovic, 
managing engineer 
with C&S Companies.
Proper discharge was also a key 
issue. An existing holding pond east of 
Runway 18-36 was expanded to allow 
more time for sediment to be filtered out 
of groundwater before it is released to 
the public storm management system—
as required by the Ohio Environmental 
Protection Agency. 
To prepare the parcel where the 
expanded apron would sit, crews stripped 
away approximately 15,000 cubic yards 
MARIA BENOVIC
CLAY FINKEN

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