LAWTON – Construction is expected to start next month on a $2+ million project to repair damage to the runway at Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport.
The work will include replacing fractured panels in the 8,600-foot-long concrete Runway 17-35, routing and sealing joints and cracks, and installing “underdrains” on both side of the runway, records reflect.
“We have free water sources all around the airport. That water causes deterioration of the subgrade and eventually cracking of the pavement,” airport Director Barbara McNally said. The underdrains – “Imagine heavy-duty French drains,” McNally said. – will be buried alongside the pavement and tie into existing inlets to drain the groundwater away from the runway.
GCC Enterprises of Dallas, Texas, was the lower of two bidders for the rehab job at $2,342,099.
During the work on Runway 17-35, the parallel taxiway will serve as the runway.
Construction is expected to start around Oct. 5, McNally said. The runway repair project initially was expected to take 60 days to complete, “but there has been some additional work on the south end safety area requested by the FAA in order to use Taxiway A as a runway,” McNally said Monday. “I do not know how much additional time will be added for that task.”
The project will be financed entirely through a $2,672,102 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration, records show. The FAA grant was larger than the contract price to enable the additional work to be completed through a change order, McNally indicated. “Any remaining funds will be recovered and rolled into future grants,” she said.
Except for emergencies, the runway was closed to heavy traffic four years ago after a preliminary engineering study suggested heavier airplanes were cracking the pavement. However, a subsequent engineering study determined the damage actually was caused by groundwater accumulating beneath the runway.
Moving air traffic from the runway to the taxiway will “limit aircraft to a smaller category,” McNally said. During construction, American Airlines, the airport’s commercial passenger carrier, will use smaller American Eagle aircraft to transport passengers, she said.
Besides the runway repair grant, Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport also received a $1,197,853 federal CARES Act grant to offset at least some of the loss of revenue during the coronavirus pandemic.
Passengers outbound from the airport during the first seven months of this year totaled 13,592, which was less than half the number of outbound passengers during the same period in each of the last four years.
The airport had an average of 1,941 outbound passengers each month from January through July this year, compared to a monthly average of 4,355 outbound passengers during the same period last year.
Similarly, the airport logged 14,332 inbound passengers during the first seven months of this year, which also was less than half the number count- ed during the same period in each of the last four years.
The airport had an average of 2,047 inbound passengers each month from January through July this year, compared to the monthly average of 4,416 during the same period last year.
Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport had just 341 outbound passengers in April and 770 in May, while inbound passengers numbered just 369 in April and 839 in May.