Pope Field runway reopens

By Lisa Moore
440th AW PAO

December 1, 2011

	Photo by Lisa Moore/440 AW PAO An Airman marshals a Pope Field C-130 on a newly renovated section of the runway. The $5.1 million project is projected to be completed by Dec. 31.

Pope Field officials have announced that the runway is now open.

After being closed for almost a month, the announcement was made this past week, almost a week ahead of schedule and just in time for the 440th Airlift Wing aircraft to land for the Thanksgiving holiday.

During the closure, 440th AW missions and training were still carried out.

“We relocated our operation to the Savannah Combat Readiness Training Center in Savannah, Ga.” said Col. Brian Kraemer 440th Airlift Wing operations group commander. “Our folks have done an outstanding job operating away from the home drome without missing a single mission.”

In the thirty days “away from home,” the unit successfully carried out 69 missions and 107 sorties. A sortie is a training operation, a mission is an actual operational activity.

The 440th AW performed air drops, local proficiencies, cross country and aeromedical missions as well as joint airborne/air transportability training also known as JA/ATT missions. They also completed a joint mission with the Georgia Air Guard.

In what seemed to be a scene from a perfectly synchronized movie, five aircraft of the 440th AW fleet arrived into the Pope Field airspace in a perfect “V” formation at exactly 11:20 a.m., Nov. 22. The aircraft circled the runway and landed one at a time and in single file fashion, each aircraft was parked and chocked side by side on the runway. All who watched were mesmerized.

“It was great to see the aircraft arrive back home,” said Brig. Gen. Norman Ham, 440th Airlift Wing commander.

The 440th AW aircraft however was not the first to land on the newly repaved runway.

“The first plane was a C-12 that belonged to the Fort Bragg 228th (Aviation Regiment)” said Willie Edwards, Pope Field airfield operations manager. Although the C-12 is not the largest aircraft, Edwards says the runway is now ready to handle any aircraft that comes its way.

“Our runway had reached the end of its life-span,” he said. “Runways typically have a 10 to 12 year lifecycle. The runway pavement condition index needed to be improved.”

The PCI is a numerical index that is used to indicate the condition of a roadway or runway. With usual wear and tear, the pavements of airfield runways gradually degrade and eventually a complete mill and overlay is needed.

“Large scale operations like the Haiti humanitarian mission really aged our runway because of the size and number of aircraft we supported,” Edwards said. “Now, we can bring anyone in the world into Fort Bragg.”

During the repair process, the top two to four inches of the runway surface was removed to create a rough exterior. New asphalt was poured and bonded to the surface.

With its upgraded PCI, the runway can now handle larger aircraft and commercial airliners that are sometimes used to bring Fort Bragg troops home from deployment, as well as the aircraft that transport the president and the first lady.

The airfield is not only used in support of Air Force missions, but Army missions as well. The reopening of the runway provides convenience for both forces.

“Having the runway open makes our planning a lot easier,” said Dave Hunt, 82nd Airborne Division air specialist. “During the closure we had to plan for aircraft to come in from different locations and to land in alternate locations such as Camp MacKall.”

Camp Mackall is a training facility located south of Southern Pines, N.C. Because of that site’s regulations, the logistics of coordinating equipment and training drops had to be adjusted.

“You can only park planes in certain places and they can’t park overnight there,” he said.

The $5.1 million runway project, which was awarded to Barnhill Contracting Company is now 85 per cent complete. Milling began on Oct. 24 and was expected to take six days to complete. The company however, completed this phase the next day which allowed paving to begin on Oct. 26.
The runway must now set for 30 days, after which grooving and permanent marking can be accomplished.

The project is expected to be completed in its entirety by Dec. 31, after which Pope Field will turn its attention to the new air traffic control tower that is currently being constructed. The tower is on track for completion June of 2012.

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