Sather AB renovates runway, paves way for Iraq's future

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Amanda Currier
  • 447th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq (AFNS) --  Sather's runway recently underwent a major overhaul, improving the quality, capability and safety of the airfield here. Construction on the 10,830-foot runway began Dec. 27 and finished June 16, the day the airstrip re-opened. 

The renovations included concrete and joint repairs, rubber residue removal, and runway striping and painting. The runway work concluded the first stage of an estimated, 15-month, 11-phase, $33 million airfield rehabilitation project, which will ultimately help the Iraqi people reach their goal of making Iraq an independent and prosperous nation. 

"We have left them a viable airstrip to be used by the Iraqi air force and by the country of Iraq to sustain their economic future," said Master Sgt. Michelle Spickler, 447th Expeditionary Operation Support Squadron airfield manager.

"For sure it is very beneficial to the future of Iraq," said Capt. Sabeeh Al Shebany, director general of the Iraq Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates aviation in Iraq. "We all know air transportation is an engine for the economy of the country, and we are laying the infrastructure for that."

Sather and Baghdad International Airport, which is Iraq's largest and busiest airport, share the same airfield. Technically, the entire airfield belongs to the international airport, but functionally, it is divided into two sides, the civil, or airport, side and the military, or Sather, side. Each side has a runway. Sather leadership and BIAP officials worked hand-in-hand to ensure airfield operations continued throughout the military runway's construction period. To accomplish this, both military and civilian aircraft took off and landed on the airport runway while the Sather airstrip was undergoing repairs. 

This enabled Sather's mission to remain in full swing during construction, but it also meant aircraft had to taxi to and from the civil side of the airfield when visiting the base. In addition, Sather airfield operators and maintainers had to rely on air traffic control tower staff members to alert them of aircraft arrivals, since all fixed-wing planes were landing on the civil side of the airfield and could not be seen from the military side. 

"Having our runway back eases the workload on the aircrews and maintainers," said Sergeant Spickler, deployed to Sather from the 15th Airlift Wing, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. "Having the aircraft land on our runway gives the maintainers a bird's eye view to aircraft on the ground, rather than waiting for the tower to inform them what aircraft is coming. It also has reduced taxi and ground time alleviating wasted fuel costs."
 
Additionally, the repairs allow the airstrip to support heavy aircraft, something it was not originally designed to do. The initial pavements builders used to make the runway were not geared to support weighty aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster, which frequent Sather's flightline in support of the airlift mission here.

In fact, while BIAP is the busiest civil airport in the country, Sather is the most industrious military airfield in Iraq. Sather moves an average of 32,000 passengers per month, more than any other airfield in the nation. Sather is also the second largest cargo transporter in the country, moving roughly 47,000 tons of freight a month and outdone only by Joint Base Balad, Iraq. For these reasons, the runway's ability to support large airframes is vital to the mission here.

Contractors, primarily from KBR, the engineering and construction company to which the Air Force awarded the airfield-rehabilitation project, replaced and reinforced several parts of the runway, which not only enabled it to adequately support larger aircraft but also increased its lifespan.

"The runway is much smoother and stronger, benefiting safety and maintenance," said Paul Christianson, KBR contractor and airfield-rehabilitation project manager. "By removing rubber and repainting, we have made the runway much safer for aircraft and crews. By doing massive concrete repairs, we have dramatically reduced the routine maintenance and foreign object, debris removal that will be required by future airfield maintainers. In essence, the repairs accomplished on the runway will greatly extend the airfield's useable, safe operational life."

The addition of clear, standardized, freshly painted runway markings is one of the most noticeable improvements from the air, and something the co-pilot of the first aircraft to land on the refurbished runway observed.

"You can definitely see the difference," said Capt. Tom Pritchett, C-130 co-pilot deployed to the 737th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, Southwest Asia, from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. "It's a lot more visible and clean."

Contractors replaced 3,655 square meters of full panels, 3,613 square meters of partial panels and 2,250 square meters of joints. They also re-sealed 39,467 meters of 14-millimeter-wide joints, 9,795 meters of 25 -millimeter-wide joints and 622 meters of 35 -millimeter-wide joints.

In addition, the contractors produced and delivered 3,428 cubic meters of concrete for the project. They also removed 59,482 square meters of rubber from the airstrip, and they painted 11,503 square meters of the runway with white markings and 378 square meters of the airstrip with yellow and black taxiway markings. Now, all airfield markings on the runway are in sync with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization, which is the U.N. agency governing civil aviation.

"It looks like a different airfield from when we all arrived in January," Sergeant Spickler said. "Not a minute was wasted during the closure of the runway to ensure, once it opened, the overall airfield environment was better than we found it."

The project took coordination between several people and organizations including Air Force leaders, engineers, airfield operators and security forces members, Army leadership, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, KBR contractors, several Iraqi construction companies and top BIAP officials.

"It took people working in offices in several cities to accomplish the repairs at Sather," Mr. Christianson said. "This required a phenomenal amount of communication, coordination and cooperation to achieve superior, quality performance and an ahead-of-schedule delivery of the runway - all with fantastic jobsite safety and minimized impact on Air Force operations."

Planned future repairs include more concrete and joint repairs, rubber residue removal, and pavement striping and painting throughout the airfield.

"As airfield managers, it's incumbent upon us to leave Baghdad International Airport in a better condition than we found it," said Lt. Col. Joseph Berti, 447th EOSS commander, deployed to Sather from the 166th Airlift Wing, Delaware Air National Guard. "The repairs that have been made to Runway 15R/33L help set the stage for success for the Iraqi government far in the future."

Eventually, the Air Force plans to turn the use of its portion of the airfield back over the Iraqi government. Repairing the runway and accomplishing the rest of the overall airfield-rehabilitation project are just a couple of the ways the U.S. military is helping Iraqi become an independent nation.

"We have also conducted training with their airport staff to enable them to maintain the airfield in the future," Sergeant Spickler said. "We have a very good working relationship with the airport operations personnel and all feel like we are one team. Our goal is to make BIAP a thriving international airport."