BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- With help from the Army and coalition nations, airmen poured the final load of concrete for the new $2.3 million runway here Oct. 24 after nearly six months of construction.
During this period, civil engineer airmen and soldiers worked on one 90-foot-wide strip, while aircraft landed and took off on the other 90-foot half.
The project was completed three weeks ahead of schedule.
After two weeks of curing and painting lines, the entire runway will be ready for incoming aircraft, said Master Sgt. David Lennemann, 455th Expeditionary Support Squadron superintendent of operations.
“Once the entire runway is activated, it will be able to support just about any heavy aircraft the Air Force has,” Lennamann said.
Unfortunately, smaller fighter aircraft will not be authorized to land here until there is less of a foreign-object-damage threat, said Capt. Trey Sledge, 455th ESS’s civil engineer flight commander. The strong winds combined with limitless marble-sized, desert gravel here pose a continual hazard for smaller aircraft with low intakes.
“There is a project scheduled for June ... to lay six inches of asphalt over the runway,” Sledge said. “This should decrease the FOD danger enough to bring in the smaller fighters.”
The runway’s completion will have a significant impact on the rest of the base.
Now that the runway is complete, standard runway lighting will soon be installed, which will allow pilots to land without night-vision goggles, Sledge said. This will eventually mark the end of blackout conditions here.
The civil engineer airmen did an exceptional job on a project that would normally be considered above their skill level, Lennemann said.
“Pouring concrete for this runway was hard work,” said Tech. Sgt. Wesley Matthews, 455th ESS structural technician. “Because of the importance of this project, this is the first time I’ve felt like I had a direct impact on the mission. Completing this runway is very rewarding for us.”