Custom Solutions for Runway Rehab: Innovative Equipment & Tracking Applications

Chris Weir, Director of Agile Operations, Aldridge

In LA, Aldridge crews utilized subject matter experts and an in-house development team to provide a transformative innovative solution to a runway rehabilitation project.

The Runway 7R/25L rehabilitation project at Los Angeles’ LAX airport was a fast-paced runway rehabilitation of one of the most heavily used runways in the United States. The rehabilitation took place during a 60-day closure of the runway. Aldridge was a subcontractor on the project with a major scope of work that included the removal and replacement of nearly 6,000 linear feet of the degraded and failing runway pavement. In addition to the light base replacement, Aldridge crews also installed all new LED in-pavement centerline and touchdown zone lighting and replaced the edge lighting with new fixtures as well. New 5kV cabling was installed for all the in-pavement lighting.

As part of this pavement removal and replacement, Aldridge removed and replaced 300+ in-pavement light bases which required coring and removing a 3 ft Diameter x 3 ft Deep at each location. Known for innovative solutions in project execution, Aldridge’s innovation team custom-built a coring machine to install the new lights. This core barrel machine was specifically designed for work done at airports and has the ability to core up to a 48” diameter at a speed three times as fast as the traditional machines that are widely used throughout the industry.

“The Runway 7R/25L rehabilitation project at Los Angeles’ LAX airport was a fast-paced runway rehabilitation of one of the most heavily used runways in the United States”

Due to the project schedule constraints, Aldridge was required to complete the removal and replacement of the 300 base cans in just under two weeks, requiring crews to work round the clock for the first two weeks of the runway closure. The tight initial schedule for Aldridge to remove and replace the base cans required much more labor and project management oversight than a typical project running one shift. Management resources and subject matter experts from all over the company were brought in to work hand-in-hand with our West Coast teams to provide this extra support and oversight during the round-the-clock operation.

With a large number of base cans and light fixtures to be replaced, the risk of re-work was ever-present. To eliminate this rework risk, the project team worked with our in-house IT development team to create a custom application for this project. This app would track the install process at each light location and provide the team with a quality checklist and area to provide photos that would ensure all work was complete and documented when each step of the installation was complete. The application allowed the third-party project QAQC representatives access to the database, which allowed them to sign off and accept the work. This documentation became a part of the overall project documentation deliverables.

The use of this custom application designed by Aldridge developers was a major key to success in keeping this fastpaced project on track. With a wealth of knowledge and experience on the type of complex work Aldridge completes, this strong team is a valuable asset throughout the organization.

The project was completed and the runway was re-opened on time. Aldridge worked nearly 12,000 work hours to complete our scope of work on this project.