66
INFO TECHNOLOGY 
October 2026      AirportImprovement.com
LCQ | VDI
Runway 14-32 at Vidalia 
Regional Airport (VDI) in 
southeast 
Georgia has been 
carrying airplanes 
since the 1940s. 
“Some of that 
concrete out there—
probably all of it—is 
original to World War 
II,” remarks Airport 
Manager Billy Ragan. 
Eight decades is a remarkable run for 
airfield pavement, and it shows. Over the 
years, the runway has developed cracks, 
and portions of the top layer are breaking 
away. The airport doesn’t put its heaviest 
traffic on 14-32, but the runway is still in 
use, and a rehabilitation project for it is 
now out to bid.
The general aviation airport is not a 
big operation: three full-time employees 
and one part-timer, 16 T hangars, six 
box hangars and one community hangar, 
all full. But from mid-September to 
mid-June, a private golf club just east 
of the airfield fills the ramp with serious 
metal. “We see Global Expresses, 
Gulfstreams—what I call the heavy 
iron,” Ragan says. Busy days include 
upwards of 20 movements. And like 
many other general aviation airports, VDI 
has a queue of safety-related projects—
clearing obstructions and maintaining 
airfield pavement—the Transportation 
Department requires it to complete before 
funding revenue-generating construction 
such as new hangars. That makes every 
project dollar count, and raises a very 
practical question: Across thousands of 
individual concrete panels, which ones 
actually need to be replaced?
Seal or Dig?
To determine which portions of the airfield 
required action, VDI’s longtime engineering 
consultant, Passero Associates, used 
Phones, Drones and New Ways 
to Survey the Airfield
FACTS&FIGURES 
Project: Pavement Analysis
Location: Vidalia Regional Airport, in GA
Engineering Consultant: Passero Associates
Strategy: Slab-by-slab assessment of 80-year-old airfield 
concrete 
Timeline: Data about 5,000-ft. runway & associated 
taxiway collected in 2 days
Key Tools: Esri ArcGIS “Field Map” mobile application; 
GPS-enabled cellphone photo logging
Key Benefits: Enhancing airfield safety; tailoring 
upcoming rehab work to condition of individual slabs
Project: Stormwater Study
Location: Lake City Gateway Airport, in FL
Engineering Consultant: Passero Associates
Key Tools: LiDAR-equipped drones; GNSS/GPS base station; 
indoor inspection drone; proprietary airspace obstruction 
analysis software
Timeline: 800+ acres mapped in 1 day
Key Benefits: Documenting water flow; identifying 
bottlenecks & infrastructure deficiencies (including 50 ft.
of underground pipe)
BY CYRUS ARYANI
BILLY RAGAN

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