"Clearing the runways takes time, caution at Kentucky airport"

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Clearing the runways takes time, caution at Kentucky airport
The Paducah (KY) Sun


To Barkley Regional Airport manager Richard Roof, snow means two words: "no
sleep."

"I can do 24 hours and not even blink," he said. "After 36, it starts to
hurt. After 48, it hurts a lot."

The airport has the equivalent of 65 paved acres. When the runway extension
and two new taxiways are completed, it will be between 72 and 73.

"It's equivalent to plowing (U.S.) 62 between downtown and Lake City," Roof
said.

Going over the area once with a snowplow takes between eight and 10 hours.

"And sometimes you don't get lucky and you have to go over it two, three or
even four times," he said.

How long flights have to be delayed or how many flights are canceled depends
as much on how fast the snow falls as how much accumulates, he said.

On Monday, Roof said the airport received about a dozen calls from
passengers who wanted to know if airport workers expected to have to change
flight schedules. He said he told them they expected snow, but beyond that
he didn't make any predictions.

Part of what makes cleaning up after a snowstorm even more complicated at
airports is that they don't use rock salt because it is highly corrosive to
airplanes, Roof said. Instead, airports use military-grade Uria, a snow- and
ice-melting compound. It costs $350 per ton. In a mild winter, the airport
uses seven to eight tons, he said.

A laser thermometer helps to quickly determine pavement temperatures so that
workers know where to spread Uria more thickly.

Snowplows also have to be equipped with special rubber cutting edges so that
they don't gouge chunks of pavement from runways, he said, and the plowed
snow must be pushed away from the runways so that the piles don't become
hazards if an airplane slips to the side when landing.


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