Airport-in-the-Sky
Rebuilding a Piece of History
By Rob Davis, Ph.D. and Gordon Rayner
California Pavement Maintenance Co. (CPM) first looked at the
Santa Catalina Island "Airport-in-the-Sky," in
September of 1997. The Santa Catalina airport is owned and
operated by the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy. Members of the
Wrigley family established the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy
in 1972 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the
preservation of the natural resources of Santa Catalina Island. In 1975, Mrs. Philip K. Wrigley and Mrs. Dorothy Wrigley Offield
deeded 42,135 acres of the island to the Santa Catalina
Conservancy and since this time the Conservancy been responsible
for the interior roads and beaches and operates the popular
recreational Airport-in-the-Sky as part of its commitment to
providing public access to the islands.
CPM was asked to evaluate and provide alternative maintenance
solutions for the airport's runway, taxiway and airplane parking
areas by Conservancy Engineering Consultant Tom Smith. The
airport is located in the center of the island, at 1,602 feet
elevation. Its single 3,250-foot runway is able to accommodate
small planes, up to and including the size of a DC3. From the
air, Catalina is a 21-mile long ridge of mountains, extending
from northwest to southeast, varying half a mile to eight miles
wide. The Airport-in-the-Sky was completed in 1946 by blasting
away the tops of two mountains and using the 200,000 truckloads
of rock to fill the gap between the mountains. Prior to the
construction of the airport, the island was accessible only by
amphibious aircraft.
Construction and maintenance of the airport's pavement
surfaces has always presented unique challenges and this project
was to be no different. There are no rock crushing facilities on
the island. There also is no asphalt plant for hot-mix nor
emulsion source for pavement treatment materials. All materials
have to be transported to the island by barge, then hauled to the
airport. CPM Project manager Rob Davis related, "My boss,
CPM President Gordon Rayner, delicately reminded me of the need
for planning when your supply line ends at a pier with a barge
that runs once a week."
CPM has prior experience with long supply lines and has
constructed or assisted RoadSaver customers with projects in many
parts of the world. Although not an island, a previous project in
Punta Arenas, Chile on the Straights of Magellan required the
equipment and materials to be barged over 1,500 miles due to
impassible glaciers on the mainland. Most of CPM's work is in the
western states where they maintain offices in Sacramento,
Fontana, San Diego, and Las Vegas.
Barge deliveries arrive at a staging area near picturesque
Avalon, Catalina's center of population and world-renown beach
resort town noted for its climate, ocean sports and friendly
atmosphere. The airport is ten road miles from the barge landing
area and is connected by Summit Road, which follows a ridge that
climbs from sea level to the airport, at over 1,600 feet in
elevation. Portions of Summit Road date back to the original
stage road built around 1887 to take tourists to exotic sounding
places such as Emerald Bay, Little Harbor and Eagle's Nest. Today
it remains a narrow mountain road that in some places is no wider
than 17 feet, and is comprised of steep grades with multiple
switch backs, hairpin turns and cliffs falling hundreds of feet
into canyons and valleys. Traffic on this road is restricted and
is limited in size to a ten-wheel truck, and then only with
caution.
Any proposed repair methods would have to take the
"Catalina Factor" into consideration. All supplies and
equipment to be brought in by barge, multiple transfer points for
loading and unloading equipment and material, and the tedious job
of transporting all of this to the airport itself. Definitely not
part of the normal bidding process.
The Airport runway, apron and taxiways surfaces were found to
be in varying states of service. The original pavement appeared
to be built up layers of oil and screenings (Chip Seal). Over the
years the surface had been further treated with a variety of Chip
Seal, Slurry Seal and seal coat preparations. The last of these
appeared to be about 10 years old with only cold mix patching
being done since that time. Time and weather has taken its toll.
The runway, taxiways and apron were severely cracked and
potholes were abundant along the entire surface. Many of the
cracks penetrated though the entire surface to the base and there
was extensive shrink cracking throughout the seal coat that had
been applied on the apron areas. Proposals and recommendations
were made based on the condition of the surface at that time and
included options for various alternative treatments.
This was before the 1998 El Nino storm system hit with a
vengeance. Storm damage not only delayed the start of the project
by months, but also did considerable damage to the existing
surface. Repair options were re-evaluated several times during
this phase to accommodate these changes as well as the new
problem of having a water-saturated base. Repairs needed to begin
as soon as weather conditions would allow. To make the best use
of the available dollars, CPM had to design a system that could
be built without the expensive process of hauling an asphalt
plant to the island. This meant designing and using asphalt
based, cold applied surfacing materials.
CPM's final proposal included:
- Cleaning, preparing and treating the distressed and failed
areas with one or more treatments of Chip Seal.
- Placing a polymer-modified Chip Seal on the entire surface
once repairs are completed.
- Performing a rut filling, depression leveling and
re-profiling operation using a highly modified material produced
by RPM equipped RoadSaver II Micro-surfacing machines.
- Resurface the entire surface with a modified RPM 2 Slurry
Surfacing.
CPM was officially awarded the contract for resurfacing the
airport in March 1998 with work to begin at the end of May. CPM
began extensive planning to mobilize Chip Seal and Slurry Seal
equipment, material, and manpower as well as the coordination for
housing the various crews and scheduling the different operations
of the project.
Santa Catalina is one of the California Channel Islands and is
located, as the song goes, "26 Miles Across the Sea"
west of Long Beach, California. This meant that all of the
equipment, materials and supplies for the airport project would
have to be barged from the Port of Long Beach to the City of
Avalon. The crews would have to fly in or take the high-speed
passenger ferry.
The Chip Seal portion of the work required 700 tons of 5/16
chip aggregate, supplied by Chandler Aggregate located in Corona,
California. All 700 tons of aggregate were transported to the
Port of Long Beach by transfer trucks at approximately 25 tons
per load. The Chip Seal aggregate was then dumped directly onto
the barge and the material was hauled in bulk to the island.
The barge capacity was approximately 400 tons per trip.
Therefore, it would require two trips of the barge to complete
the transfer of the Chip Seal material to Santa Catalina Island.
The first barge left on May 15th with 400 tons of aggregate, and
the remainder of the Chip Seal aggregate was barged to the island
on May 19th.
Once the Chip Seal aggregate arrived at Santa Catalina Island,
it was off-loaded by loaders and ten-wheel dump trucks and placed
in a holding area adjacent to the barge facility. From May 16th
to May 18th the Chip Seal aggregate was transported to the
airport in ten wheel dump trucks. Three trucks were used to
complete this transfer carrying approximately ten tons each. It
took each truck nearly two and one-half hours to make this 20
mile round trip. Once the Chip Seal aggregate reached the
airport, the aggregate was staged along the east apron area. This
process was repeated once the second load of Chip Seal aggregate
arrived on May 19th.
The Slurry Surfacing aggregate used was a Type II provided by
Livingston-Graham Blue Diamond
Materials located in Irwindale, California. The Slurry
Surfacing aggregate, like the Chip Seal aggregate, was
transported via transfer trucks to the Port of Long Beach and
dumped onto a waiting barge. In all, over 600 tons of Slurry
aggregate was barged to the island.
The first load of Slurry Surfacing aggregate was barged to the
island on May 19th along with the remainder of the Chip Seal
aggregate. It was important that the two aggregates were not
mixed and precautions were taken to insure that these aggregates
were not contaminated. The remainder of the Slurry Surfacing
aggregate was barged to Santa Catalina Island on May 22nd and May
29th.
Like the Chip Seal aggregate, the Slurry Seal aggregate was
off-loaded in Avalon, stock piled and then tediously transported
to the Airport, where it was staged for construction.
CPM asked John Franklin, President of Franklin Construction
Inc, to assist in the construction of the chip seal portion of
the work. CPM, in addition to being a Slurry and Micro-surfacing
Contractor, is also a Chip Seal and Asphalt Paving Contractor.
When asked why CPM would use another contractor for a portion of
work they might normally do, Rob explained, "CPM will often
use other quality contractors when it is beneficial to the
customer, even if it means giving up a portion of the work we
might normally do. In this case we knew that Franklin
Construction had a project scheduled about the same time in Santa
Monica, just a few miles up from Long Beach. Asking them to
participate would save the many thousands of dollars it would
cost to mobilize a crew and equipment from Northern California,
which is where our crew was at the time. I was very pleased with
the performance of John's crew and since I personally spent years
with CPM's Chip Crew, both as a crewmember and a supervisor, I
know what I am looking at. There was one other factor, both
Gordon and John have a history of involvement with flying and
airports, in fact, John is the owner and operator of the airport
at Paradise, California and uses his T-210 Cessna the way most of
us would use a car"
The Chip Seal equipment included a Bearcat chip spreader, two
Bearcat distributor trucks with trailers, kick brooms, rubber
tired rollers, ten wheel rock trucks, a service truck, pick up
trucks and low boy tractor trailer. The Chip Seal equipment was
loaded on the barge in Long Beach between 8:00am and 1:00pm and
sailed at 3:00pm on May 27th. It took four hours for the barge to
transit from the Port of Long Beach to Avalon. The Franklin Chip
Seal crew took the Catalina Express boat to Avalon, which took 1
hour and 10 minutes to make the crossing. The Chip Seal equipment
arrived at 7:00pm and was off loaded by the Chip Seal crew. The
equipment was assembled and readied for the trip up to the
Airport. The convoy of Chip Seal equipment, through the City of
Avalon and up the mountain road, began at 8:00pm. The process
took several hours, going up through the switchbacks and narrow
road to the airport. The broom and roller operators experienced
some thrills and were bitter cold by the time they reached the
airport. The two boot trucks had to jack knife more than once to
negotiate many of the hairpin turns, the trailers were left in
Avalon. During construction, the boot trucks would return to
Avalon in the evening to pump emulsion from the trailers and
return each morning to the airport.
During this mobilization, the Santa Catalina Island
Conservancy Ranger met and inspected the equipment for foreign
plant and seed matter. Six hundred twenty-five tons of Chip Seal
aggregate and 50 tons of Latex-Modified Cationic Rapid-Set
(LMCRS) asphalt emulsion along with the Chip Seal equipment and
crew was now staged and ready for construction. The crew returned
to Avalon for the night.
On May 28, the resurfacing operation of the Catalina Island
Airport began. The first task was sweeping and cleaning of all
the pavement surfaces in preparation for the initial repairs. The
runway, apron and taxiway potholes were patched by crack filling
with emulsion and then applying with one or more layers of
polymer-modified Chip Seal. The process was labor intensive and
required that each hole be hand-sprayed with LMCRS
(Latex-Modified Cationic Rapid-Set) emulsion and then treated
with chip aggregate. All repairs were rolled with a pneumatic
roller. Some areas, such as the edge of the taxiway, were
repaired in the conventional manner by spreading the emulsion
with the boot trucks and applying the chip aggregate with the
chip spreader. In other words, these areas, as well as all the
repairs and other weak areas, would ultimately receive a double
Chip Seal.
Upon completion of the patching and repair work, the final
surface coat of Chip Seal was applied to approximately 420,000
square feet. The final chip seal application began with the
placement of Latex-Modified Cationic Rapid-Set asphalt emulsion
(LMCRS-2h.) A pair of Bearcat distributor trucks spread the
emulsion at the rate of .28 gallon per square yard. This was
immediately followed by the application of 18-20 pounds per
square yard of medium-fine (5/16) chips, which were set in place
by pneumatic tired rollers.
The final surface application began at 7:30am on May 29th and
was completed at 7:00pm the same evening. Any excess screenings
were swept the following day. The Chip Seal equipment, less one
broom and a pneumatic roller, was then transported back to Avalon
for the return trip to the Port of Long Beach. Both equipment and
chip seal crew returned to Long Beach on Saturday, May 30th.
The first member of the Slurry Seal crew arrived on the
incoming ferry on that same Saturday morning and commenced post
sweeping after the chip seal placement to remove excess aggregate
screenings from the runway, taxiway and apron. The sweeping
continued Sunday the 31st and was completed Monday June 1st. This
allowed the Chip Seal mat to cure for three days prior to Slurry
Surfacing patching and profiling operations.
The Slurry Surfacing equipment, two specially-equipped
RoadSaver II RPM units, plus a tanker, a flatbed support unit, a
crew cab, supervisor's truck and two insulated asphalt emulsion
tankers were assembled at the Port of Long Beach on Monday
morning, June 1st, for transport to Avalon. Seventy-five tons of
Latex-Modified Cationic Quick-Set asphalt emulsion (with 3% Latex
by solids) was transferred from transport tankers to the
insulated storage trailers at the Port of Long Beach. Additional
materials including totes of carbon black and EVA polymers,
fibers and cement were also loaded onto the barge with the Slurry
Seal equipment. The barge, equipment and materials left Long
Beach at 11:30am.
The Slurry Seal crew took the Catalina express boat and met
the barge in Avalon. The barge arrived in Avalon at 3:30 PM. The
Conservancy Ranger met the equipment upon arrival in Avalon. The
equipment was inspected and given a clean bill of health prior to
off-loading. The crew unloaded the equipment and lined it up on
the road, a supervisor's pick up with yellow flashing caution
lights in the lead. The stake bed and trailer would be last in
line because this unit would have the hardest time negotiating
the Summit road. This time the convoy to the airport had an
escort through town and traffic on the mountain road was stopped.
The equipment arrived in the early evening and was prepared for
work the next morning.
The crew returned to Avalon for the evening. Both the Chip
Seal Crew and the Slurry Seal crews stayed in a house rented for
the duration of the project. The house provided comfortable
sleeping arrangements, a washer and dryer, and a full service
kitchen. By this time the crew had heard all about the Buffaloes
wandering on the runway and had witnessed the varying climates
that Catalina has to offer.
Most visitors think of bison and goats when they think of
Catalina's animals, but the island has many native animals of
equal attractiveness and of great biological interest. The
islands isolation and unique environmental conditions give
sanctuary to a wide variety of creatures ranging from crickets
and walking sticks to Bald eagles and Peregrine Falcons. Although
once gone from the island, these magnificent birds were
re-introduced to Catalina by a combined effort between the
Institute for Wildlife Studies, the Peregrine Fund and the
Catalina Conservancy.
Catalina offers a tremendous diversity of climates ranging
from desert to forests and the marine life around the island is
so abundant that even early man appears to have enjoyed this
bounty. Carbon dating of artifacts found in the Little Harbor
area have been dated to ancient cultures as much as 6,800 years
ago. This and other interesting historical information can be
found in a booklet "Santa Catalina Island - The Story Behind
the Scenery" published by KC Publication in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
The Slurry Surfacing operation commenced with the filling of
potholes, ruts and corrective profiling using materials and
methods developed by CPM. The patching materials used a
combination of LMCQS-1h (Latex-Modified Cationic Quick-Setting)
emulsion with 3% Synthetic Butadiene Rubber co-milled into the
asphalt emulsion. In addition, 4% Ethylene Vinyl Acetate was
post-injected into the mix through the RoadSaver II RPM system. For
further strength, a blend of fibers and cement was added to the
mix. For deep holes, the aggregate was modified with a larger
stone matrix.
This mixture was initially applied to the potholes and uneven
surface areas to correct surface irregularities, which were
unable to be fully corrected by the chip seal operation. Most of
the holes and uneven surface were worked by hand for the first
lift and then profiled with a specially constructed spreader box
and additional material. Approximately 100,000 square feet of
profiling and leveling was completed on June 2nd and 3rd. Some
areas required multiple applications of this mixture, and
additional fiber and larger aggregate was added to lend strength
to the deeper areas. A pneumatic roller was used to compact all
patched areas.
The spreader box that was used for pothole filling and
profiling was specifically designed by CPM for the Catalina
Island Airport project. This spreader box was shorter than a
normal 13-foot box and had a special strike off attachment for
leveling.
The final surface treatment was the application of a modified
Slurry Surfacing developed by CPM called RPM 2 Surfacing. The RPM
2 work began on the afternoon of June 3rd and continued through
June 4th. RPM Surfacing is made and applied to the
existing pavements by a specialized slurry/micro-surfacing
machine, the Road Saver II. CPM builds these machines in
Sacramento and sells them worldwide. Gordon stated "The
RoadSaver II was built for performance and reliability. While
Catalina may be a remote location in some terms, many of our
international customers send their machines into far more
isolated areas where reliability is critical. The RoadSaver II is
designed for that."
The RPM design used for the finished surface used the same
LMCQS-1h as the base emulsion, a Type II aggregate and a blend of
4% EVA and carbon black. Each RoadSaver II was equipped with
separate tanks for additional polymers and the carbon black.
These two materials were metered, proportioned and mixed together
through an in-line blender prior to being injected into the
mixing pugmill of the RoadSaver II as part of the computerized
electronic sequencing operation which controls the various
components.
The mixture was then fed into a spreader box, which spread the
RPM Surfacing onto the pavement surface. A RoadSaver II spreader box
was used for the final RPM surfacing application. Once the RPM
Surfacing had set, it was pneumatically rolled once again.
RPM Surfacing Systems have been under development by
California Pavement Maintenance Company since the late 1980's.
Using internal testing and development facilities and their own
equipment design and fabrication unit, Rayner Equipment Systems,
CPM has achieved significant improvements in the search for
better Preventative Maintenance Systems.
RPM Surfacing offers flexibility in design to better service
the wide variations in pavement needs such as those required for
the Catalina Island Airport. Special polymer binders are used to
increase the strength of the RPM Surfacing mix and help raise the
softening point of the base asphalt blend. Added materials, such
as carbon black, assure a dark color and provide protection
against oxidation and ultraviolet light. The dark color provides
a better background for pavement markings and provides a uniform
color over the entire resurfaced area. This is especially useful
on airport runways where the color differential helps the
visibility in areas of overcast or smog. After opening of the
airport, one pilot commented, "I thought I was on the wrong
island!"
At the end of each day the equipment was cleaned and prepared
for the following day's work. The tanker truck returned to Avalon
to pump over emulsion at night and once during the day. This was
also a two and one-half hour trip. While the tanker was making
this trip, the crew would use the time to continue working on
patching and running out the material that had been loaded on to
the trucks prior to the tanker departure.
CPM installed RPM Surfacing on the runway, the taxiway and
tie-down areas according to our their contract. When these areas
were finished, CPM took stock of the extra materials they had on
hand. Extra materials were brought to cover the potential losses
in transportation, contamination in handling and unknown factors.
Since the seas were calm and the handling was efficiently done,
they used these materials to resurface the terminal parking area
and the access road leading into the airport.
Resurfacing was completed on June 4th and the equipment was
mobilized back to the barge staging area. CPM swept the dirtier
parts of the Summit Road on the return to Avalon. This provided
some excitement as two large buffaloes decided they wanted to see
what was going on and the broom operator was afraid they might
have developed a romantic interest in the sweeper.
"Part of the enjoyment of working on a project such as
this," commented Rob Davis, "is the diversity from
normal construction projects. Besides the challenge of the
logistics and the opportunity to show how we can really perform,
Catalina Island offers a variety of wildlife such has wild sheep,
foxes and buffaloes. Operations were disturbed more than once by
the appearance of buffaloes onto the airport. The airport
employees and ranger would then come and herd the animals back to
a safe area. It was never a dull moment. Long days, hard work,
but never dull."
It wasn't all work however, the crew had a great time on the
island and enjoyed the beaches, clubs and the scenery of the
island. On Wednesday, June 3rd, Project Manager Rob Davis and
Construction Supervisor Bill White barbecued steaks and fries for
the crew. Rob, an ex-Navy Seal, also got in eight scuba dives,
including three shipwreck dives and was seen in the company of
seals and sting rays capping off those hard grueling days on
Catalina Island.
Barge day came, the equipment was loaded, the crew boarded the
passenger ferry and returned to Long Beach on Friday June 5th,
leaving behind only footprints, memories, a new airport pavement
surface and the keys to one of the pickups left at Long Beach.
When asked what led to the success of this project, Rob Davis
replied, "For our part, months of planning, coordination and
logistical work by many CPM employees, plus having the right
materials, equipment and know how to do the job. Without the
RoadSavers, this project simply wouldn't have turned out so well.
These machines have so much flexibility and mixing power that we
were able to make all these various blended materials right on
the job. For the project as a whole, we had the excellent
cooperation and support of the Conservancy, Paul Moritz, the
Catalina Airport Manager, Tom Smith of K&H Engineering and
John Franklin and his chip crew. I would also have to give
special credit to Oden Zanderwiel of Catalina Island Conservancy,
whose efforts made it all work."
"Our crew, who worked hard on this project, consisted of
Bill White, supervisor; Javier Escobedo, Operator, who put all
his 20 years of Slurry experience to the test here; Jose Delara,
line driver; Jose Tovar, shuttle; Pablo Hernadez and Javier
Reyes, squeegee men and Dave Taylor, roller and kick broom
operator and amateur buffalo enthusiast."
Work was completed on schedule and the Catalina Island Airport
re-opened June 5, 1998 as planned. While the airport was
"officially" closed for nine days during construction,
Catalina Airboat Service, who carries freight between Long Beach
and Santa Catalina Island, continued to fly their normal
schedule. The four planes, including one DC 3, took off and
landed on the dirt adjacent to the runway making a minimum of
three round trips to Long Beach every day with the exception
Saturday and Sunday.
At least 30 flights arrived the first day of operations after
resurfacing was completed. Many commented that "This is a
great new runway," one pilot said "It was worth the
wait" while another said, "You can see this runway for
miles."
Now as long as the buffalo don't roam back out on the
runway……
Catalina Airport -
Acrobat
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