WESTFIELD – Barnes Regional Airport will have a new challenge in snow and ice removal because of modification to the runway but have had the opportunity to work on procedures during the two recent freezing rain storms.
Most work on the $21 million runway rehabilitation was recently completed at a cost of about $14 million. Other facility improvements, such as runway and taxiway lighting, account for the remaining $6.6 million.
Airport Manager Brian Barnes said that the runway improvements included installing concrete strips at either end of the main runway to prevent damage caused by the F-15 fighters stationed at the Air National Guard 104th Fighter Wing.
The old asphalt runway was damaged by the F-15s, which usually use afterburners to lift off the runway, as they began to rotate upward at the point of liftoff, blasting the exhaust into the asphalt.
Strips of concrete, 75 feet wide, were installed at the two ends of Runway 2/20 to alleviate that afterburners exhaust damage. The total length of the concrete is over 3,000 feet of the 9,000-foot-long runway.
“The first third at either end of the runway have concrete along the center line of the runway,” Barnes said. “Concrete is slicker in any weather condition and has less breaking capability, something we communicate to the pilots coming in to the airport.”
Typically asphalt roads are treated with a sand and salt mix, a treatment that is not used at most airports to prevent damage to aircraft and salt causes damage to concrete surfaces.
“We can’t use sand because of the F-15s,” Barnes said. “Some airports have heat elements under the runways, but that is a big buck expense.
“We use Cryotech deicing fluids. That is the only thing approved for the F-15 because it is noncorrosive,” Barnes said. “It lowers the freezing point of liquids and helps with recovery when it warms up during the day.
“The last two ice storms were a big problem here, storms that weren’t a problem for people driving on the roads,” Barnes said. “Freezing precipitation causes all sorts of problems and we can’t put stuff down like they do for the roads.
