Aiken Regional Airport's primary runway, constructed of asphalt, is being removed and replaced with concrete in a $7.7 million project on schedule to be completed in September.

Located outside the city limits, the airport has been owned by the City of Aiken since shortly after World War II. Aiken Aviation is the airport's Fixed Base Operator.

Airport Manager Christopher McCauley, who is also an assistant city engineer, said July 16 the runway reconstruction is an important maintenance project, as runways are regularly inspected by the state and graded on a pavement condition index.

"All of our pavements, every taxiway, every apron, they're all rated. Once you get down to about the 70s, you start looking to plan a project," McCauley said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is paying for 95% of the cost. The state and city are splitting the remaining 5%.

"The city got it right in the window where we're getting a $7.7 million project for about $250,000. It's hard to beat that," he said.

"The window lined up, the timing was just right, and it was a maintenance project that we needed to take care of," he said.

The work began June 8.

The primary runway is 5,500 feet long and 50 feet wide. A milling machine removes part of the existing asphalt runway to leave a base deep enough to pour a concrete slab of at least 6 inches, but up to 13 according to the topography.

"Based on a topo of the surface, they hit variable depths to cut it," McCauley said. "It's just been milled down a couple inches."

The milling produces dump-truck loads of material, but none of it leaves the airport property. Instead, it is used to build access roads to bring concrete and equipment to all sections of the runway.

"All of the haul roads are being built out of the material we're removing from the runway," McCauley said. "We're actually getting quite a bit of benefit from the material that we have here."

The milling and hauling by dump truck are done by subcontractors of Hi-Way Paving of Dublin, Ohio, which is making concrete for the new runway on site using a portable factory called a batch plant.

"We have these mobile batch plants and move them around to different airports," said Caleb Sewell, project engineer for Hi-Way Paving.

"We make the concrete on site. We bring in the aggregate and all the material, and we batch it on site and pour it. So, everything is made right here," he said.

Once mixed, the concrete is hauled in dump trucks to the runway, then poured and formed by a paving machine into a slab 10 feet wide. Five 10-foot-wide strips will form the width of the runway. There will be no seam in the center that could interfere with landing gear, and the runway will be crowned and sealed to shed water.

"Today's the last day of milling out here," Sewell said.

"So far, we're ahead of schedule," McCauley said. "Every phase transition milestone that we've set so far, we've beat by anywhere from three to seven days."

The work continues around the clock. Two crews totaling 25 workers are working twelve-hour shifts. Eleven days on. Three days off.

McCauley said he expects the project to be completed by mid-September.

"Our intention is to get everything completed, cleaned up, and then have everything recertified and operational before January when we start seeing reservations for the Masters Tournament," McCauley.

Air traffic at Aiken Regional Airport increases tenfold during the weeks before, during and after the annual golf tournament.

McCauley said reconstruction of the primary runway will last a generation.

"It'll be a few decades before we have to revisit this," he said.

"We're currently entertaining some design options for a rehab of the secondary runway, so we're excited about that, and that's also going to be done ahead of really what it absolutely has to be," McCauley said.

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