Spokane International Airport’s overnight runway maintenance work was completed at 4 a.m. Sept. 20, which concludes the overnight closures of the main Runway 3/21. The work began on Sept. 11 and consumed 456 labor hours involving eleven Airport employees, eight from Airfield Maintenance and three from Operations. The nightly runway closures were conducted from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. with the ambient temperature ranging from 49 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The work was completed three days ahead of schedule.
The runway maintenance work involved removing, cleaning and aligning all of Runway 3/21’s 755 light fixtures, as well as installing 9,300 specialty washers and hand tightening and manually torqueing each of the 4,650 bolts to Federal Aviation Administration specifications. Each fixture weighs approximately 12 lbs. and is 12” in diameter. As the Airport prepares for winter operations and low visibility conditions, this project will help ensure the runway lighting systems, particularly the touchdown zone, centerline and lead-on/off lights, which are integral to the Category III Instrument Landing System, are in proper working order to support the flight navigations systems. Runway 3/21 is 150’ wide by 11,002’ long, spans over two miles in length and comprises a surface area of almost 38 acres.
The Airport’s alternate Runway 7/25 was in service during the temporary overnight closures of Runway 3/21. Because Runway 7/25 is aligned east-west, residents on Spokane’s South Hill may have noticed a change in the pattern of aircraft arrivals and departures during the temporary closure period.
