We all know that some things get better with age. Fine wines? Check. Sean Connery and Sophia Loren? Double check. Airfields, runways and other aviation facilities? Not so much.
Our nation’s private and military aviation facilities have seen a lot of use in the past few decades and, like much of America’s infrastructure, they are in need of replacement and/or improvement. Many public and private projects are getting underway (or will be beginning soon) to construct new aviation facilities, and specialists like Sundt are seeing a fair amount of that work heading straight down the runway in their direction.
Why? Because Sundt has extensive experience performing aviation construction projects for the military, municipal governments and private sector, including some that affected the course of history (see photo). We know that these projects require detailed coordination with facilities operators and the ability to perform high quality work to exacting standards. Sundt also has the ability to self-perform the concrete and infrastructure construction portions of these projects, which gives us a high degree of control over their quality and schedule.
Runway paving requires a particular level of expertise that Sundt has developed over many decades. Our current project at Cannon Air Force Base near Clovis, N.M., is a great example. There, Sundt’s heavy civil crews are engaged in a $23 million project to construct a new parking apron and taxiway for the C-130 gunship aircraft – totaling 140,000 square yards of 16.5-inch-thick concrete paving. The project also includes new drainage facilities for the taxiway and parking apron.
Sundt’s most recently awarded aviation project, located at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., shows there’s no substitute for experience. Our crews will soon begin construction of a $24.3 million Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Auxiliary Landing Field that will enable Marine F-35B pilots to practice vertical takeoffs and landings. Sundt was selected for the federal construction project in large part because of its prior success building a $19.1 million JSF simulator facility at the same location.