Comments on: Writer seeks info on chip-sealing gravel runway

By: Perry Liston

Perry Liston — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 02:27:05 +0000

Thanks for this super blog.

By: Paint Touch Up System

Paint Touch Up System — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:28:23 +0000

It’s a difficult problem. I understand both sides of the argument because of how fairly you have presented them here. I look forward to your updates on the subject.

By: Melvin Main

Melvin Main — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:46:57 +0000

If the traffic volume on your gravel runway is low to moderate, there is a chemical stabilization alternative to chip seal that costs far less and will provide the same performance. Contact me if you are interested. mel.main@midwestind.com.

By: Dave Sclair

Dave Sclair — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:48:50 +0000

Received teh following via email from Ed Shafer:

In reply to your question: I developed anairport from a farm field 34 years ago and started with about 2 inches of crushed limestone 50′ wide and 2700′ long. It took 110 semi loads to do this. I wanted an all weather airport so I sprayed liquid asphalt followed by a coating of sand and then a second coat of asphalt (old timers call it oiling) and a
second covering of sand. Chips get loose and ruin props and also tough on the underside of wings when the wheels fling the rock at the airplane. I rented a 5 ton roller and rolled as much of the sand into the asphalt while the asphalt was still hot.

This worked well for about two or three years and then we started to get pot-holes in the spring of the year and had to do a lot of patching. This system worked fair and we had to re-coat the runway every three to five years to keep the integrity in good condition. We always used sand as the binding agent to eliminate bad nicks on the props and or chips in the wind shield.

Two big factors:

1. How thick is the base rock.
2. how good is the drainage taking water away from the runway?
Spring thaws are the hardest thing to live with, without good base the aircraft will make ruts in the pavement and will later cause cracking which lets water get under your surface and that is not good. During a severe thaw in the spring I would close the airport to eliminate the aircraft from cracking the pavement in its soft condition, this would usually be less than one week.In 1987 I worked out a joint plan with the state of IL and we overlaid the runway with 2 inches of asphalt and two years after that we received a federal grant to overlay with 2 more inches. We received this grant because we were considered a reliever airport to the St Louis metropolitan area. We have a 54,000 TO/landing count per year.

This info is just the tip of the iceberg. I can explain much more to you if you would like to call me.

GOOD lUCK ON YOUR PROJECT.
Ed Shafer
St Louis Metro-East Airport-Airpark (3k6)
St. Jacob, IL 622281 Phone: 618-644-5411

By: Ben Sclair

Ben Sclair — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:51:58 +0000

Received the following via email:

WE HAVE BEEN TOLD BY A PAVING COMPANY THE CHIP AND SEAL AIRSTRIP WILL WORK OK IF THERE IS A SEAL COAT APPLIED ON TOP, TO SEAL ALL LOOSE ROCKS….RALPH LEMME, NORWALK LANDING, LLC

By: Bob Kibler

Bob Kibler — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:53:17 +0000

A chip seal does not do well at all on a runway. There will always be loose rocks on the surface. Unlike a highway surface, a runway never gets enough traffic on it to seal in the chips. At the Desert Aire Airport, we had an old deteriorating chip seal surface on our runway. Airplanes here were always getting dinged props and tail surfaces. The runway only got fixed in 1995 when we paved it with hot mix.