The American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) recently announced the winners of their Excellence in Paving Awards and the Southwest Concrete Paving Company was honored with two awards.
SWCP excels at military airfield work and the two awarded projects exemplify that – The Special Operations Facility (SOF) Hangar Project at the Laguna Army Airfield at Yuma Proving Grounds and The P-391 F-35 Maintenance Hangar Project at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore.
Surface texture is applied with SWCP’s Gomaco TC500 at the Special Operations Facility Hangar at Laguna Army Airfield at Yuma Proving Grounds in Yuma, Arizona.
The first project is the Special Operations Facility (SOF) Hangar at the Laguna Army Airfield at Yuma Proving Grounds in Yuma, Arizona. This project expanded the operating facilities by constructing a new SOF Hangar building designed to house fixed-wing aircraft for both operations and maintenance.
Pavement adjacent to taxiway radius was constructed with panel leave-out to accommodate the significant grade break for drainage.
Innovations were necessary throughout the project due to unique challenges encountered. Working in previously undisturbed desert areas, extensive grading and storm drainage systems had to be constructed in order to build the new access taxiways and aprons. Stringless slipform paving technology with both pavers was utilized to reduce job site congestion and improve both horizontal and vertical concrete placement control.
The use of RFIs was critical, as design elements that looked good on paper presented serious constructability challenges. Some of these included double-lane paving on 18.75-foot-wide taxiways to reduce construction joints and days needed to complete the paving, adjusting surface grades in drainage areas to make larger areas paveable by slipforming instead of hand-placing, and the revision of air content in non-freeze thaw areas, which helped to minimize cementitious material required in the mixture to obtain strength.
New concrete for the apron is extruded from the GP 2600 with a burlap drag trail.
From the test section to the completion of the final placement, airfield construction lasted only six weeks, including the completion of a trench drain running the entire width of the new apron directly in front of the double hangar bay. The project totaled just under 9,000 cubic yards of concrete. It was primarily built in short bursts instead of long continuous paving runs and utilized a jigsaw-type method that pieced together the various portions of the new configuration.
Wide pilot lanes lie paved in front of the SOF Hangar as the SWCP crew continues work through the night.
The SWCP Project Team included Operations Manager David Rath, Luis Sandoval, Ivan McKinney, Jay Reinhardt, Andrew Contreras, Gabriel Orozco, and Joaquin Carillo.
The P-391 F-35 Maintenance Hangar Project at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore
The second SWCP project receiving an Award of Excellence from the ACPA was the P-391 F-35 Maintenance Hangar Project at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore. This was a design-build effort that supported the extension of the recently constructed Hangar 6.
Preparation takes place for a fill-in lane between two pilot lanes, with baskets and lighting in position.
The associated apron expansion supported the extension of Hangar 6 and enabled the addition of two F-35C squadrons at the air station. The F-35C incorporates advanced stealth technology into a highly agile, supersonic aircraft, offering pilots unprecedented situational awareness and unmatched lethality and survivability.
The new parking apron, which included a finished section of 13-inch PCCP atop 22 inches of new aggregate base course, accommodates 21 new F-35C aircraft for Hangar 6. A new connecting taxiway with a structural section of 14-inch PCCP on 22 inches of aggregate base was built along the northern edge of the apron.
With concrete poured from the on-site batch plant, slip forming takes place at sunset.
One of the last project features involved connecting the main apron slab, constructed early in the project, with the hangar bay slab, which was performed after the completion of all steel truss work and primary overhead operations on the hangar building.
The construction of the fuel area and new Taxiway G was carefully sequenced around active airfield operations, restricting construction hours and requiring paving operations to maintain a distance of 200 feet from active taxiways and taxi lanes during daily operations. Despite the potential to work at night, paving activities were further restricted due to NAS Lemoore’s frequent night missions, necessitating restrictions around flight shifts.
Loading bins at the on-site batch plant
The project site allowed for an on-site batch plant close to the paving site. SWCP leveraged recent work on the adjacent P-284 project and utilized the existing concrete batch plant for paving on this project. With a Rexcon Model S plant, relatively large daily volumes of concrete were batched and transported to the paver using a minimal number of wet haul trucks. The previously established plant site, including a concrete pad for aggregates, not only prevented contamination of aggregate stockpiles but also facilitated water drainage during the rainy season and when sprinkling aggregates in preparation for paving.
Curing compound is applied to one of the pilot lanes. In the background are the sunshade canopies, which shield the F-35C aircraft from damaging ultraviolet light.
The SWCP Project Team included Operations Manager David Rath, Ben McClurg, Luis Sandoval, Gabriel Orozco, Andrew Contreras, Ivan McKinney, Joaquin Carillo, Jay Reinhardt, Sean Elliot, and John Baker.
Congratulations to the SWCP Teams on the well-deserved recognition for these two great projects! And big thanks to David Rath for his generous help and extensive contributions to this story.