Runway construction running smooth

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Stephanie Englar
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Base and community leaders were invited out to the center runway June 7 to preview the progress of the construction.

The project started back in August 2012 by stockpiling materials and preparing for construction and then the center runway closed back in March as it entered Phase II of the construction plan. Overall, the project is about 66 percent of the way completed, making it slightly ahead on its August 29th completion date.

The Center Runway is a 12,000 foot by 300 foot runway with two 1,000 foot overruns. The center runway was originally built in 1959 for heavy load aircraft to support B-52 and KC 135 operations. There was less than 20 percent of the pavement life of the asphalt section of the runway remaining.

The $31.29 million project will replace the center 10,000 foot asphalt section of the runway with a 10 inch thick by 200 foot wide concrete surface. The outside 50 foot runway edges will be replaced with new asphalt.

The entire new section will feature a six inch drainage layer and a new four inch to 10 inch crushed aggregate base layer.
Even though the construction project is ahead of schedule, its completion date is still at the mercy of the weather.
"One of the challenges is the wet spring that we've had," said John Trumm, 14th Civil Engineering Squadron. "It's been a wet spring, however, we've had some very good weather the past few weeks and we've been able to resolve a lot of issues."
The mission of Columbus Air Force Base is to produce pilots, advance airmen, and feed the fight.

Lt. Col. David Meissen, Commander of the 14th Civil Engineer Squadron, said the base's other two runways as well as runways at Golden Triangle Regional Airport are being used for pilot training missions while the work is going on.

According to the Economic Impact Report for the 2012 fiscal year, Columbus AFB flew approximately 287 sorties a day.
"Those inner and outer runways are 100-percent active," said Meissen. "Those runways are good for many more years. Eventually they will need to be looked at, but this runway lasted for approximately 50 years and we're going to try to get 50 more years out of a new one."