HGL’s $7.8 million contract covers mostly concrete work and runway lighting, and an environmental contract, covering grass and drainage work was let for an additional $1.4 million. Those portions requiring repair were occupied by Sundt as a staging area before the contract was canceled.Ī new contract would not be put out for bid until sometime in 2019 so the Air Force called on HGL Construction of Midwest City, Okla., to make interim repairs and restore the runway to 12,000 feet in time for the October 2018 Thunder on the Rock air show. “Returning the runway to the original 12,000 feet required minor repair work to 5,000 feet of existing pavement, paving another 1,000 feet of overrun and restoring portions of runway lighting,” according to the base commander. The balance of the funding has been returned to the Air Force. Sundt had been paid more than $60 million, according to the Corps. The project was supposed to be completed by April 2017. The company’s contract was canceled a month later. Sundt Construction pulled its equipment and personnel off the job in May 2017. The Corps oversees construction projects on military installations. The original project, including dirt work for drainage, new lighting, tearing up and replacing the long runway and demolishing and rebuilding a shorter landing strip was to have been completed in April 2017, according to Laurie Driver, spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock district. Gerald Donohue, the base commander, said it would be ready in time for the USAF Thunderbirds to perform at the air show. Problems with the runway construction started in 2017 when the original contractor, Sundt Construction, for the then-$108 million project and the Air Force parted company months before a scheduled Open House featuring the Thunderbirds.Īt the time the job was stopped, only about half the 12,000-foot-long runway was in service. “The completion of this runway project helps solidify our ability to project worldwide maneuver at the time and place of our choosing.” Denny Davies, 19th Airlift Wing and installation commander. “Today as we stand in the face of great power competition, our nation entrusts us to win, and win we will,” said Col. The runway replacement also improves safety for pilots by ensuring they have a full field of vision entering and exiting the active airfield. Now complete, the new runway (150 feet by 12,000 feet) can accommodate other aircraft in the Air Mobility Command fleet such as the C-5 Galaxy, KC-10 Extender, C-17 Globemaster III, KC-135 Stratotanker and the KC-46 Pegasus. In 1964, the B-47Es were replaced with B-58s until the C-130s arrived in 1970. The original mission aircraft were B-47E bombers, RB-47 reconnaissance and KC-97 tankers for the Strategic Air Command. The runway was first built 200-feet-wide-by- 10,000-feet-long in 1954-55, and later extended by 2,000 feet to the east in 1956-57. The 64-year-old runway was suffering from a substantial number of joint cracks and cracked slabs caused by seasonal weather fluctuations and heavy wheel loads from aircraft. In order to provide rapid air mobility, the base needed a reliable, safe runway that met the dimensions and weight-bearing capacity for their aircraft. Little Rock AFB provides tactical airlift worldwide and trains pilots and aircrew for all Department of Defense branches. George Nichols, deputy director at the AFCEC’s Facility Engineering Directorate, said “The airfield is Little Rock’s most important mission asset.” Phase one consisted of replacing the landing zone and center taxiway, while phases two and three focused on construction on the East and West portions of the runway and installing new lighting and navigational aid systems.Ĭol. The $180 million project replaced the 60-year-old 12,000-foot-long primary runway and was done in three phases. The AFCEC provided design and planning, as well as ensured the project stayed on time and within budget alongside contracting partners in the Air Force Installation Contracting Center’s 772nd Enterprising Sourcing Squadron and the 19th Civil Engineer Squadron. The Air Force Civil Engineer Center oversaw the latest construction effort. Another firm was hired to complete the job. 21-22.Ĭonstruction first started in 2014, but the contractor left the project in midstream. The timing couldn’t be better as the base is set to hold an air show and open house Oct. It’s taken nearly nine years, but Little Rock Air Base officials, congressional staffers and local civic leaders celebrated the completion of the new base runway during a ceremony Aug.
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