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AIRFIELD PAVING PROJECTS
Attention to detail and a focus on quality are critical for successful airfield paving
W
ith nearly 85 percent of all airport runways, taxiways, and aprons constructed from asphalt, airfields present a significant opportunity for asphalt contractors willing to tackle the quality demands required to meet stringent airfield pavement specifications. To put the market segment into perspective, U.S. airfields have approximately 460 million square
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ASPHALT CONTRACTOR FEBRUARY 2022
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yards of paved surface - or the equivalent of nearly a quarter of surface area of the U.S. Interstate highway system. But, paving airfields is not for the faint of heart. “Airfields are significantly different from typical road construction,” notes Mark Blow, P.E., senior regional engineer with the Lexington, KY-based Asphalt Institute. He says airfields face much heavier loading than roadways, while being traversed by aircraft with much higher tire pressure than cars and semi trucks. These factors drive the need for higher quality construction materials and tighter construction tolerances.
Paving has to take place quickly and during off peak hours because airports depend on the landing fees that are collected each time a plane takes off or lands. Work must often be scheduled in the short window between the last flight of an evening and the first flight of the next day. USE QUALITY MATERIALS Deteriorating pavement conditions are the most likely trigger for airfield pavement projects. “Foreign object debris (FOD) is a huge issue in the airfield world,” Blow says. “It is quite often a parameter that triggers
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1/25/22 9:11 AM
