ACPA Pavement Progress Q1 2017

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Concrete Pavement Progress 10
J F K A I R P O R T
The pavement portion of the $282million project
included:
• Constructing 728 feet of runway pavement
on the north side of the runway tomaintain
departure length
• Widening the runway from 150 feet to 200
feet to comply with the needs of Group
VI aircraft
• Rehabilitating the runway using concrete
to replace existing asphalt
• Constructing high-speed taxiways
• Constructing new taxiway exits leading to
the Central Terminal Area, new taxiway
access points to the north end of the runway,
and other taxiway modifications
“The concrete specification and mix proportions
used to construct runway 4L-22R were the result
of years of lessons learned and testing in the Port
Authority concrete laboratory on concrete used to
construct aeronautical pavements,” says Casimir
Bognacki, P.E., chief of materials engineering
for the Port Authority. “Our aeronautical con-
crete pavement specification holds the concrete
industry to a higher standard than national
specifications without increasing overall cost.
The Port Authority specification requires larger
stone and more stone in the concrete mix, but
less cementitious material.”
The Port Authority’s specifications produce a
“greener” concrete and reduce the potential for the
concrete to crack, Bognacki says. “This allows us
to construct our pavements with a joint spacing of
25 feet, compared to the national standard of 20
feet.The flexural strength of our concrete is about
1000 psi versus the national standard of 700 psi.”
“Quality assurance testing on the concrete mix
submitted and during production also goes
beyond national standards and most impor-
tantly, we do not accept concrete with any crack,”
says Bognacki. Concrete with cracks before the
runway is opened to traffic is removed by the
contractors at their cost, he adds. “We expect
our aeronautical concrete pavements to provide
good service for well over 50 years.”
Project Challenges
One of the challenges faced with the 4L-22R
runway project was the runway’s intersection
with other runways and the need to leave two
taxiways open for airplanes to access the termi-
nal, saysThomas Amoia, P.E., program director,
World Trade Center Construction, for the Port
Authority. Not only did this require setting con-
struction schedules that limited the times work
was performed at those intersections, but it also
required a plan to limit the need for construction
traffic to cross runways or taxiways.
“We required the contractor to erect and use
two concrete plants on the site—in locations
that would feed different parts of the project
to minimize construction traffic,” says Amoia.
“We did work off hours to minimize closures and
would capture some of the next stage when we
were at locations that required closure to access
the site.” The combination of flexible project
scheduling and two operating batch plants on
site enabled the Port Authority to deliver a better
product, he adds.
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