From line shack to first class

Dodge County Airport (KUNU) in Juneau, Wis., is known for its former “line shack” terminal—a cozy, wood-heated building for local pilots. It has since grown to become a bustling county seat airport—one that needed to critical rehab and expansion work in order to upgrade its facilities. The airport, along with the Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics (WBOA), selected MSA for the project—a two-phased scope that included reconstruction of the 100-foot by 5,060-foot runway along with two 300-foot taxi lanes, removal of direct aprons and upgrading of runway lights and indicators.

Funding for the airport reconstruction project was awarded in the form of two discretionary construction grants from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The grant originally planned to fund only 75 feet of the 100-foot wide runway, but project partners fought diligently to get the scope completely funded, with the agreement to break the job into two phases.

Success in phases

Phase I began with full-depth reconstruction of the western portion of the runway—2,300 linear feet—in order to improve subsurface drainage issues related to poor underlying soil conditions at the site.

Phase II addressed reconstruction of the remaining 2,700 linear feet of runway to the east. MSA was able to minimize cost and re-purpose existing pavement structures by removing and pulverizing a former taxiway and use it to construct fillets at various intersection points of pavement throughout the airfield. Hidden drainage issues were resolved by building up more substantial longitudinal/transverse slopes at the match points of the project, facilitating run-off away from areas of frequent use.

Swift execution and coordination with the airport owner, authorities and the WBOA resulted in a brief, 14-calendar-day shutdown of the airport during Phase II, minimizing disturbances to airport operations as well as to revenue lost.

Going green on the ground

A final, yet not insignificant, touch on the project yielded the replacement of the airport’s medium intensity runway lights (MIRL) and precision approach path indicators (PIPIs) to upgraded LED lights—a modification that will save on costs and energy use for years to come.