Airport Business - 22

PAINTING & STRIPING
Waterblasting also cleans the airfield
surface before the application of paint.
This ensures paint won't f lake because
it was laid on top of foreign substances.
"On concrete, you need to remove the
curing compound before you apply the
paint," Lettengarver said. "There's a lot
of people who don't do that and again,
the same results of flaking and chipping."
Hog is releasing its new Surface Hog
soon. It's smaller than current units and
uses about 7,000 PSI to clean around the
airfield. It provides a versatile tool for
cleaning around all the terminals.
The Hog Tusk Waterblasting head is
equipped with grinder teeth. It rotates at

The teeth on the Hog Tusk
only touch the substance,
not the pavement when
removing paint.
HOG TECHNOLOGIES

2,400 RPM, and the teeth only touch the
equipment. Escalating maintenance costs
material, not the surface of the runway.
could indicate it's more economical to
It allows easier centerline removal
invest in something new.
"It's really based on how well they
while still using Waterblasting. It uses
take care of the equipment," Tooker said.
half the water and goes five times the
speed.
"The equipment can run forever, but if
In one demonstration, the Hog
they don't do a lot of maintenance on it,
then it's like if you don't fix the brakes
Tusk was able to remove 120 MIL of
on your car. You just don't want to use
thermoplastic at a pace of 236 feet per
minute, compared to about 40 feet per
it anymore."
minute with a traditional head.
"You can go over the marking with
Know Your Needs
one blasting head at five to six times
Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport
the speed of a regular water blaster and
(IFP) in Bullhead City, Ariz., has passed
profile it with the grinding teeth and
four straight Part 139 inspections.
With its location in the southwest,
the water blaster cleans it up to leave
a smooth, clean Waterblasting profile," IFP is subject to five straight months of
Lettengarver said.
100-plus degree temperatures. It's also
located within the Colorado River Basin,
Hog performs an extensive training
making it a very windy environment as
program for its equipment. The airport
can train its top operators and technicians
well, which can be challenging to find
on the equipment usage and maintenance
days to address paint.
during a four nine-hour days. All the
"We put a tremendous amount of care
into painting," Jeremy Keating, airport
training is on-site to ensure operators
are learning how to use it in their own
director for IFP said. "I learned in my
environment.
career that you have to watch anyone
Scholten said airports need to
who is painting like a hawk. It's almost to
determine its tolerance for investing in
the point that you have to micromanage."
new equipment and weigh the cost with
IFP uses inhouse staff for some of
maintenance and downtime of current
its smaller painting needs. For example,
the airport purchased equipment to
Waterblasting provides
allow staff to handle issues with lead-on/
easy rubber removal from
lead-off lines. Contractors with long line
runway surfaces without
trucks are brought in for more complex
damaging paint.
issues.
IFP utilizes test strips to ensure crews
HOG TECHNOLOGIES
are using correct colors and nozzles are
performing properly. Strips are laid on far
flung areas of the airfield to test overall
quality before crews lay down paint.
"We have small pieces of ride on and
push pieces of equipment and we rely on
the long line trucks to do other heavy
duty lifting of the longer lines that need
to be straight," Keating said.
Grove City Regional Airport (GMJ)
in Grove, Okla., is rehabilitating its east
side taxiways and runway pavement and
lighting program.
The $3.2 million program includes
the installation of all new pavement and
striping. The airport will go out to bid
in October and construction is expected
to begin in 2021. The entire program
should be completed by 2023.
Lisa Jewett, airport manager, said it
was 20 years since anything other than
crack sealing was done to the runway.

22 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / APRIL 2020
Airport Business

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