Pub. 1 2018-2019 Issue 2

AIRPORT A t a timewhen very fewpoliticians agree about anything, it turns out they do agree about supporting the country’s air travel. The FAA, whose authorization was scheduled to expire on September 30, 2017, was given two short-term extensions and was then granted approximately $97 billion in funding through the end of the 2023 fiscal year by Congress. HR 4, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, was called a must-pass bill. It passed 393–13. The Nat i ona l Aspha l t Pavement Association (NAPA) strongly sup- ported the re-authorization of the FAA. According to an organization called Airports Council International, U.S. air- ports generatemore than$1.1 trillionand support upwards of 9.6 million jobs, but the infrastructure is old. At the same time: • Airline traffic is increasing. The rate is currently 2.2 percent per year. • In addition, experts think the fleet of cargo aircraft will increase to 1,114 by 2036. • Revenue tonmiles will also continue to increase. The annual rate is 3.6 percent over the next 20 years. That combinationof heavy use andanold infrastructure is a recipe for future prob- lems. That is why it is so important to fi x the problems now before they become worse. To be clear: they will indeed get worse if no one pays attention to them. Runways, especiallyatmajor airports, have to support aircraft weighing hundreds of tons during hundreds of thousands of landings and takeoffs per year under all kinds of weather conditions. Runways at major airports are usually designed to last between 20 and 30 years before they need to be completely replaced. Unfortunately, U.S. runways are already pretty bad. The American Society of Civil Engineers has given theU.S. infrastructure a D+ grade and has estimated the airport shortfall alone at $42 billion. In 2018, not even one U.S. airport was included in any of the top-ten spots on the list of top-100 airports for the World Airport Skytrax Awards. The airports on the list were selected by international travelers out of 500 possible airports. (It is some consolation that a limited number of U.S. airports did make the top 100, starting with Denver in the 29th spot.) Clearly, user feeshavenot beenpaying the necessary cost to maintain and improve infrastructure in theU.S., including airport infrastructure. Consider one aspect of the aging infra- structure: asphalt pavement runways. The U.S. has 3,330 commercial airports. Approximately 85 to 90 percent of the runways at these airports have an asphalt pavement surface.Why? For small general aviation airports, with a low volume of mostly lighter landing aircraft, asphalt pavement is cheaper, easier, and requires lesstimeforconstructionandmaintenance. From 2017 through 2021, $15.4 billion dollars areneeded for AIP-eligibleprojects involving runways, taxiways, and aprons. Finding the funding is important if the goal is to keep airports safe and increase their capacity to move passengers. Toward that end, the President signed the ConsolidatedAppropriations Act of 2018, HR 1625, on March 23, 2018. It provides $1 billion in discretionary grants that the Secretary of Transportation can use for airport projects. See https://www.faa.gov/ airports/aip/aip_supplemental_appropri- ation/ for more information. People often say that good airport pave- ments cost less. That is essentially true, PAVEMENT By Craig A. Ide, P.E., Pavement Engineer, Utah Aeronautics Division, UDOT 30