Rush Repaving Job on Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Runway Proves Costly

By Scott Wyman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Jul. 22–The asphalt had not even cooled when the first plane took off at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after a late-night scramble to repave the main runway.

The work on a key intersection was supposed to take 28 hours over three days. Construction crews instead jammed it into four hours.

Since the rushed job in the fall of 2004, engineers have depicted the pavement as too rough and uneven and questioned how long it will last, according to reports obtained by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The airport spent more than $11 million on the initial repaving and now must spend another $2.4 million to make repairs.

The questionable work is among a litany of problems at an airport that has had four managers in five years. There have been numerous audits critical of construction management. Flooding has plagued the new rental car garage, and a baggage-handling center was built without a roof.

County Commissioners John Rodstrom, a critic of airport expansion, and Josephus Eggelletion, who supports expansion, accuse the airport of trying to cover up the pavement problem and question why it has not been discussed with commissioners. Each is concerned about whether the airport is overcoming a track record of missteps.

“I’ve tried to warn my colleagues, but it is like a giant yawn every time something like this is revealed,” Eggelletion said. “Work needs to be done correctly, and staff knew this was a problem.”

The repairs to the intersection come at a time when the main runway will be relied on more than ever. The airport’s south runway must be closed for three years while it is lengthened and that means more traffic on the main runway.

The 2004 work was the first time in 15 years that the 9,000-foot main runway had been repaved, and the most sensitive part of the job was its intersection with the diagonal runway. When the work took place, both runways were required to close and no commercial flights could land or take off. The intersection was scheduled to be repaved at night on Sept. 7, 8 and 9, but work was delayed by Hurricane Frances. After the storm, airport officials decided not to close the runways for as long as planned under their contract with Community Asphalt Corp.

Why they decided to speed up the work is not clear. Tom Jargiello, the airport director at the time, said airlines wanted the airport to be closed as little as possible.

Jargiello signed a contract amendment with Community Asphalt giving the firm four hours to accomplish the task. In a recent interview with the Sun-Sentinel, he noted Community Asphalt and the county’s engineers had agreed to the change.

“You really are shutting down the airport so the discussion is the amount of shutdown needed to do the intersection,” Jargiello said. “We went back and forth between work schedule and closure time.”

In the early morning of Sept. 19, crews rushed onto the airfield in a frantic attempt to pave the intersection, spreading 560 tons of asphalt between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.

Records show that concerns arose as the pavement was being laid.

An on-site inspector wrote in his log that the airport “was pressing to open the runway” and that he asked crews to hose down the hot asphalt before flights began. In the months afterward, pilots began complaining about the intersection’s roughness.

The airport tried patching the intersection and then hired an engineering firm to investigate. AVCON Inc. of Orlando estimated the intersection’s pavement life would be only five to seven years — half as long as expected — as a result of the 2004 work and follow-up repairs.

AVCON concluded the cooling time had been “drastically insufficient” and that the asphalt temperature had been 60 degrees hotter than recommended when planes began using the runway. Its report said the intersection was not as smooth as necessary, did not meet grade requirements and varied too much in thickness.

Little was done after that report was received in April 2005. That’s until Kent George, the airport’s current director, sought a new review of the runway condition in preparation for the south runway project.

The consultants who studied the runway condition for George, DMJM Aviation, reached conclusions similar to AVCON’s. DMJM termed the four-hour effort “nearly an impossible task” and recommended repairs.

Despite the intersection problems, DMJM predicted that the runway overall will last at least 10 years. DMJM’s report said there are no safety concerns but said the roughness is bad enough to effect the comfort of passengers and cause extra wear and tear on aircraft.

Scott Wyman can be reached at or 954-356-4511.

—–

To see more of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sun-sentinel.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.