Enhancing runway durability with Petromat Enviro

Overview

The Altoona-Blair County Airport, a regional airport in central PA, faced a safety concern with one of its runways. Reflective cracking had occurred due to harsh freeze/thaw conditions during winter months. The daily impact on the airport pavements caused fatigue in the surface layer, making them vulnerable to further damage from moisture infiltration and traffic loading.  

Challenge

To address this issue, the project engineer recommended using paving interlayer fabrics to extend the design life of flexible pavement runways. However, they had never specified a sustainable asphalt paving interlayer fabric. A suitable solution was found in Petromat Enviro™, a paving fabric designed to be easily recycled by milling it into small pieces. This fabric effectively mitigates stress and moisture on runways, taxiways, and aprons, ensuring the preservation of pavements for smoother take-offs and landings.  

Solution

To implement the solution, half of the existing runway wearing surface was milled off, and Petromat Enviro was directly installed on the milled surface. Petromat Enviro has optimal elongation, enabling its installation without a leveling course. 

Finally, a 2-inch (5.08 cm) finished surface course was applied directly on top of the Petromat Enviro. The installation of 20,000 yd² (16,722 m²) was completed with ease.