Downtown airport boasts a new runway safety system
Published 10 November 2009
Safety barriers made of new type of absorbing concrete are installed at a Kansas City airport; the barriers are made of concrete blocks which collapse to absorb the energy of the airplane while minimizing the damage to the aircraft and allowing the aircraft to be slowed without hurting passengers
Melissa Cooper walked this week across the crushable concrete blocks that make up a new runway safety system at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City. “It feels bouncy,” said Cooper, assistant airport manager. “Kind of like walking on a dock.”
Kansas.com’s Robert Cronkleton writes that this will not be the experience of airplanes should they stray onto the $17 million safety feature called EMAS — engineered materials arresting system. Instead, the planes’ weight will crush the cellular cement blocks, stopping the planes with minimal damage if they overshoot the end of the runway.
Crews have been installing the system, which consists of a bed of 2,982 blocks — each 4 feet by 4 feet — on the south end of Runway 1-19, Cooper said. The blocks gradually increase in height, starting at 8 inches and then increasing to 20 inches, she said.
Installation is expected to be completed by next week. Some grading, concrete and other finish work will still need to be completed.
Installation is expected to be completed by next week. Some grading, concrete and other finish work will still need to be completed.
Construction on a second bed for the north end of the runway is expected to begin next spring. “The system consists of special blocks that were designed to arrest an airplane traveling up to 70 knots to keep the airplane from departing the runway,” said Mike Barnes, a construction site supervisor with Esco-Za, a Zodiac Aerospace company out of Logan Township, New Jersey.
The blocks collapse to absorb the energy of the airplane while minimizing the damage to the aircraft and allowing the aircraft to be slowed without hurting passengers, he said.
“It actually acts like quicksand,” Barnes said.
“It actually acts like quicksand,” Barnes said.
The deeper the plane travels into the bed, the more energy is absorbed. The airport began studying alternatives ten years ago, said airport manager Michael Roper.
“We had looked at extending the runway into the Missouri River floodplain,” Roper said. “But that was going to require about 90,000 cubic yards of fill. After Hurricane Katrina, the levy districts in Kansas City were a little concerned what that could do during a flood stage.”Federal funds are paying for about 90 percent of project, he said.
“We had looked at extending the runway into the Missouri River floodplain,” Roper said. “But that was going to require about 90,000 cubic yards of fill. After Hurricane Katrina, the levy districts in Kansas City were a little concerned what that could do during a flood stage.”Federal funds are paying for about 90 percent of project, he said.
In his six years at the airport, Roper said, there have been two overruns at the south end of the runway. During his tenure, there have not been any at the north end.
Such a system is not needed at Kansas City International Airport because there is plenty of land at the ends of the runways.
Such a system is not needed at Kansas City International Airport because there is plenty of land at the ends of the runways.
