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AirportImprovement.com      October 2026
RUNWAYS 
SAT
noticeable to pilots and passengers alike. 
But Tamang says federal engineers also 
recognized SAT couldn’t afford to shut 
down its runway for too long given the 
stresses that would have created for 
commercial airlines and the military.
“(The Southwest Region Airport District 
Office) said, ‘We’re going to be OK with 
you doing this kind of paving as long as 
your contractor can do it,’” he relates.
Austin Bridge & Road also had the 
foresight to save some of the former 
panels from Runway 13R-31L to reuse as 
crushable fill material for later airfield work.
“You had guys who were really thinking 
long-term to say, ‘Let’s do this and do this 
right.’ It allowed for the right amount of 
back and forth,” Tamang remarks.
In the end, Saenz was pleased to be 
able to tell SAT’s commercial carriers 
and the military brass that the airport 
and its project team had collaborated 
to enable air traffic to run at maximum 
efficiency. “Airlines often tell me they don’t 
make money with airplanes sitting on the 
ground,” he says. “They want them up in 
the air. And that’s our job at airports—to 
ensure we minimize delays and maximize 
their on-time performance.”
For Salerno, the recent runway 
rehabilitation at SAT will help demonstrate 
that alternative delivery methods such as 
CMAR can be applied to airfield jobs. “We 
had confidence we could execute and 
beat the schedule,” he says. “Because this 
has been successful, airport owners are 
now able to talk about [airfield CMAR] as 
a more optimal way of delivering projects 
in the future, which I think is good for the 
industry.” 
Save Time and Money
• Cost Effective
•  Eliminate snow removal delays
•  Eco-friendly and energy efficient
•  Reduce or eliminate trucking of snow  
on air traffic areas
•  Eliminate security risks associated with trucks
trecan.com
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
AIRPORTS PROUDLY USING TRECAN SNOWMELTERS INCLUDE:
BOS  |   BUF  |   BWI  |   CLE  |   DCA  |   DFW  |   IAD  |  JFK  |   LGA
   MCI  |   MHT  |   MSP  |   PIT  |  YUL  |  YVR  |  YYZ
SNOW
Trecan Snowmelters are the industry standard 
for Airport snowmelting equipment.
Some of the removed panels 
will be crushed and used as fill 
material for other projects. 

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