A look into how Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport maintains safe and efficient runways

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities plays a big role in maintaining airport infrastructure throughout the state.

Tasked with ensuring efficiency within Alaska’s diverse environment, DOT’s Communication Director Shannon McCarthy said wet soils and permafrost often pose challenges.

But she said those challenges, especially within an airport as busy as Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, are constantly monitored and reviewed to mitigate unsafe conditions.

“We have about 220 acres of runway and about 341 acres of taxiway here,” McCarthy said. “The one nice thing here is that this area has been developed for quite some time, so we’re not looking at settling problems here at Anchorage International; we have a sophisticated drainage system underneath the runways to keep water from ponding or pooling which can cause asphalt damage over time.”

With just shy of 15,000 people coming through TSAIA on a given day, McCarthy said steadfast procedures are a must to provide quick responses to any problems that might occur.

In addition to drainage systems, McCarthy said the airport was built on elevated land to help avoid concerns such as sinking or pooling - a model that DOT strives to follow at the roughly 240 other runways inside state-owned airports.

But for Ted Stevens, McCarthy said the concern is less about water and more about weight.

“The biggest impact we have to our runways in terms of wear and tear is actually the jet traffic that we have,” McCarthy said. “We have a lot of cargo jets, which are heavy.”

With Ted Stevens being the second-busiest cargo airport in North America and fourth in the world, McCarthy said depending on the size and model, cargo planes can weigh anywhere between 100,000 to one million pounds.

She said with that much consistent weight landing and taking off the pavement, a certain amount of cracking is inevitable.

Tim Lufkin with airport operations said cracks are not only inevitable but ongoing. He said it’s critical to keep moisture from entering into those cracks to prevent further damage.

That’s why every summer crews are sent out to apply sealant inside every crack followed by asphalt patches.

According to Lufkin, however, cracks aren’t the only ongoing concern. Rutting — which is a surface depression in the plane’s wheel path on a runway — is also common.

While the damage is common, Lufkin said it can have serious impacts on aircraft if not addressed quickly.

The path to repairing rutting is to mill out the damage to remove the deteriorated pavement and replace it with a new asphalt mix. Lufkin added that similar to the sophisticated methods used to address water drainage, he relies on his own “sophisticated method” for determining when ruts are in need of repair.

“My rule of thumb on ruts is if I have three-quarters full cup of coffee, and that rut makes it spill, it’s time,” Lufkin said.

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