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AA and FedEx - 10/28

D

Deleted member 24525

Guest
Ok guys, you know the drill...no speculating.
 

Renegade One

Well-Known Member
None
Think it was the Trump campaign charter…first I'd known about the "crumbling overrun barricade" or whatever it's called. Makes sense, tho…kinda like a "runaway truck ramp" on a down grade highway.

What exactly IS it? A thin shell of concrete slabs over a bed of deep sand? You folks in "the show" obviously know all about these. How prevalent are they…all major airports?
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
What exactly IS it? A thin shell of concrete slabs over a bed of deep sand? You folks in "the show" obviously know all about these. How prevalent are they…all major airports?
Yes- Engineering Materials Arrestor System (EMAS). Pretty much wet concrete.
lexus-concrete-kirby-above.jpg


The maintenance process is complicated but really quite fascinating. You need to keep it wet, so that means crews gotta go out there with hoses and a water truck about every couple hours. The water trucks for this are bright orange so that they don't get confused with fire trucks.
AugCvr2.jpg


The crews not only have to have SIDA badge training with vehicle endorsements, but special training on the wet concrete process because you can easily overdo it but if you don't do it right then the EMAS concrete starts to set. There is also a balance with ambient temperature, wind, and humidity- conditions vary a lot different between NY in the winter, to the dry southwest, to elsewhere.
stock-photo-perak-malaysia-august-construction-workers-pouring-wet-concrete-using-hose-from-the-476294602.jpg

Speaking of the winter, remember how a lot of runway and taxi lights are LEDs nowadays but they found the snow builds up around those? (The old incandescent lights always made enough heat to melt the snow that fell on them.) Well the EMAS at cold airports has to have heating elements underneath that concrete. So much for all that electricity savings.

Something else, they also have those big rakes like what you see at baseball stadiums for the baselines.
8962-9.jpg

The catch here is the EMAS is too deep for regular footwear. Instead, the the maintenance crews have to wear special footwear that resembles snowshoes in form and function.


So complicated, but definitely worthwhile...
 

Uncle Fester

Robot Pimp
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Yes- Engineering Materials Arrestor System (EMAS). Pretty much wet concrete...

fascinating-dts9h6.jpg


First I'd heard of this too. Sounds ungodly complicated to maintain but cheaper than flaming wreckage, I guess.

How on earth do they maintain this system in deep cold? Like, Fargo in February cold, or lake-effect snow days in Ohio or NY state. You mentioned heaters but God that'd be tough when it's 20 below.
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
…first I'd known about the "crumbling overrun barricade" or whatever it's called. Makes sense, tho…kinda like a "runaway truck ramp" on a down grade highway...How prevalent are they…all major airports?

Yes- Engineering Materials Arrestor System (EMAS). Pretty much wet concrete....

One of the episodes of Air Disaster had a bit about the overrun arresting concrete during the episode about the Air France A340 crash in Toronto in '05. They talked about how the runway they ran off of was a perfect place for the overrun arrestor system because there was a big depression right beyond the end of the runway and a major highway right beyond that, but they didn't have it installed. Here is some info on it and where it is installed.
 

mmx1

Woof!
pilot
Contributor
When I looked into it I think it was an engineering solution for runways that can't simply be extended to provide additional runoff space - whether due to encroachment or geography.
 
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