Airport Business - June-July 2020 - 17

ENVIRONMENTAL MITIGATION
Maybee said airports need to find
the right partner with the technical
expertise to understand what your
containment is and how it needs to be
treated.
"It's about being innovative together,"
he said. "This company hasn't done this
kind of application so we're potentially
opening them up to a whole new industry
for them to apply this equipment in."

The Swirltex
system can
filter about
3,000 cubic
meters per
day.
SWIRLTEX

The Swirltex system is portable
so Edmonton was able to avoid a
large capital investment to test the
system.
SWIRLTEX

Myrtle Beach Finds a
Solution For Bad Soil
Myrtle Beach International Airport
(MYR) recently installed a new
stormwater management system as part
of its upgrades to Taxiway A.
MYR's coastal location makes it
susceptible to severe weather such as
hurricanes. The airport needed the
stormwater system to address these
events along with the area's annual
rainfall average of 50 inches.
Douglas Sander, vice president,
Delta Airport Consultants, said the
airport is also very f lat. The existing
ditches retained water, so it was a major
challenge getting water off the airport.
"On top of that, we had to construct
a pavement box with a thickness big
enough to accommodate the larger
jets that are using the airport," he

said. "Trying to fit those two things
together where you have not much fall
for water to go and then putting a thick
pavement box on top of that, those were
the biggest challenges."
The apron plan was also an add-on
to the original improvment plan. Sander
said when designing the taxiway, they
did take into consideration the area
would eventually be converted to an
apron, so they had already accounted for
the additional impervious area as part
of the stormwater catch.
The project faced issues with soil
quality and fiber optic infrastructure
buried less than 10 feet underground.
The ground needed to hold the pipe, six
inches of stone, six inches of cementtreated base and 16 inches of concrete.
A person walking on the ground
could sink up to their knees.
"The soil was considered unsuitable
because it had a lot of organic material
in it," Sander said. "Organic material
is bad, it will not compact, it will not
support the weight above it."
PSI of Conway LLC replaced
unsuitable soil and used compacted
#57 stone to stabilize the stormwater
management system constructed with
6,500 feet of FFA-approved Class 5
C443 reinforced concrete pipe (RCP).
The four large drainage structures
supporting the system each weighed
about 25 tons to support the aircraft
taxiing above the surface.
Rather than installing a traditional
single culvert of large diameter RCP,
they installed multiple culverts of
smaller RCP side-by-side to avoid
the fiber optics while still meeting
stormwater specifications.
"We've never laid this much pipe
like this the way we did it," said Keith
Mesimer, owner PSI of Conway LLC.
"We went ahead and cut all the dirt out,
got it down to grade and then put our 57
on the bottom on the whole entire run
and we put pumps on both ends, so if
it rained, it would stay dry at all times."
The Ta x iway A stor mwater
management system features triple
culverts of 36-inch RCP, triple culverts
of 30-inch RCP, quintuple culverts of
24-inch RCP and more than 36,400
linear feet of underdrain installed across
12 work areas.
"As fast as they could get the pipe

The Taxiway A stormwater
management system features
triple culverts of 36-inch RCP, triple
culverts of 30-inch RCP, quintuple
culverts of 24-inch RCP.
PSI OF CONWAY LLC

Rather than installing a
traditional single culvert of
large diameter RCP,crews
installed multiple culverts of
smaller RCP side-by-side.
PSI OF CONWAY LLC

to us, we were laying it because it was
already on grade," Mesimer said.
PSI of Conway had to remove all
of the bad dirt along the project area
and replace it with a suitable material.
Mesimer said about 70,000 yards of dirt
was replaced.
The project was started after a major
2018 hurricane and during construction
was interrupted by another hurricane.
Preparations ensured work wasn't
damaged by the storm.
"All in all it was a success," Mesimer
said. "It turned out very well and
everyone involved was pretty proud.
There were a lot of hours put in, but
at the end when you see the finished
product and everyone is happy, it makes
you feel good." 

JUNE|JULY 2020 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 17
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Airport Business - June-July 2020

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