PIKE PAVES AIRPORT SMOOTHNESS FOR YEARS TO COME BY FLAVIA DE FARIA
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Thousands of travelers will soon take to the skies by way of a revamped 11,322-foot by 150-foot runway and taxiway built with nearly 104,500 tons of asphalt supplied by Pike Industries Inc. (Pike), a CRH Company. Pike began construction in 2019 to rebuild the $20 million runway project at Portsmouth International Airport at Pease—formerly known as Pease International Airport—in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The airport is a joint civil and military facility that serves New Hampshire’s seacoast area. “It has been really exciting to be part of this important project for the region,” Pike President Barry Duffy said. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the New Hampshire Air National Guard, Pease Development Authority and the state’s bureau of aeronautics are pay-
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ing for the project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2021. The scope of the work at Pease includes profile milling the existing surface of the runway and replacing approximately 2.7 million square feet of asphalt pavement. The project also includes: • reconstructing four connected taxiways; • upgrading runway edge lights and threshold lights; • replacing airfield guidance signs and runway distance signs with LED signage; • installing two permanent precision approach path indicators; • striping and marking; and • re-grading edges of the runway safety area. As the main contractor on the job, Pike is working alongside different subcontractors to meet FAA specs required on the
project. “It has been an honor to partner with the Pease Development Authority,” Duffy said. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t stop the Pike team from making progress on the runway rehabilitation project. “We are extremely proud of our ability to tackle a project of this magnitude and execute safely and successfully even through the pandemic,” Duffy said. Pike’s safety department has been vital to protect the safety and health of their employees during these unprecedented times. “Our work is essential to sustaining infrastructure and we are fortunate that we can safely execute within the new COVID-19 framework,” said Steve Fuller, safety director at Pike. “We all adapted to the new personal protective equipment (PPE) protocols and safety practices.”
