Coast Guard Airport Rigid Pavement Rehabilitation and Storm Water Mitigation

Air Station Elizabeth City in North Carolina is one of the largest air stations that operate Coast Guard and civilian crafts to meet the need of the Coast Guard and the regional airport. The air station has two major runways, 10-28 and 1-19, along with a taxiway system. Runway 10-28 is in considerably good condition while runway 1-19 is severely deteriorated and in need of repair. Runway 10-28 is currently heavily used resulting in additional stresses on the pavement that ultimately decreased its service life. After the most recent assessment, it was recommended that runway 1-19 be demolished, redesigned, and reconstructed using approximately 75% of the recycled Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement, upgrade the taxiway system, and improve the storm water management system in order to accommodate the current and future Coast Guard aviation needs. The new layout and pavement design of the taxiway and runway were based on the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense’s unified facilities criteria. The final runway design incorporated an 8 inch aggregate base layer overlaid by a 12 inch thick PCC slab. A new drainage system was designed using the storm water management model (SWMM) to collect and channel storm water runoff generated by the airfield as well as optimize the drainage system to protect the integrity of the runways and reduce maintenance costs.