RUNWAY REBUILT IN 240 HOURS

The City of Phoenix gave M.M. Sundt Construction 240 hours to rebuild Sky Harbor International Airport runway, which has some 500 incoming and outgoing flights per day, or pay $1,000 for every hour over the deadline. The City decided to close the runway for construction on May 12 at 4 pm and reopen it on May 21 at 6:45 pm. The contract schedule was established to the nearest 15 minutes. Sundt Co. had to remove a 4 in. (100 mm) thickness of existing asphalt concrete from the runway (an area of 73,00 square yard (61 000m square) and replace it with 2 to 17 in. (50 to 430 mm) of asphalt concrete. This was necessary to meet the design and slope requirements of Federal Aviation Administration. Asphalt rubber was used as a stress absorbant membrane interlayer. At times during the project there were up to 105 pieces of equipment on the runway. Three lay-down machines and up to 9 rollers worked around the clock. The drum-mix plant used for this project produced between 450 and 500 tons (400 to 450 tonnes) of asphalt per hour for 20 hours each day. Two commercial plants were on standby to supplement production. Midway through the project, 700 tons (635 tonnes) of asphalt concrete were being delivered per hour-three different mixes from three different plants. The quality control testing was extesive. Seventy-six samples for gradation control were taken, 1 per each 1,000 tons (900 tonnes) produced. The contractor actually finished the project 36 hours ahead of time, but the quality control testing took the full 240 hours. (Author) hours. (Author)

• Corporate Authors:

  Asphalt Institute

  2696 Research Park Drive
  Lexington, KY  United States  40511-8480
• Authors:
  • Schnormeier, R
• Publication Date: 1985-8

Media Info

• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: p. 1
• Serial:
  • Asphaltnews
  • Volume: 8
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Asphalt Institute

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airport runways; Asphalt concrete; Asphalt plants; Construction management; Driver rehabilitation; Drums (Containers); Mixers; Quality control; Rubberized bitumen
• Uncontrolled Terms: Rapid methods; Rehabilitation
• Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Materials; Pavements; I52: Construction of Pavements and Surfacings;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00451775
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 27 2004 9:58PM