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| 8 RX-900's on NYC's JFK airport  Milling contractor Intercounty Paving brought its entire fleet of 950-hp cold planers to this high-profile project at JFK airport In New York City. It doesn't get much more high-profile than this highly publicized job: Take the busiest runway at one of the world's busiest airports and shut it down for 120 days. During that brief four-month window of opportunity, completely rebuild the runway from the ground up, or… Well, the penalties to the contractors if they do not accomplish their mission within the allotted time span can be easily described as "astronomical."The Bay Runway (13R-31L) at New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport is 4,411 m in length—which makes it the second longest commercial runway in the United States. It is long enough that NASA has designated the Bay Runway as a backup runway for space-shuttle missions. This main runway handles approximately one half of the airport's departures. Beginning March 1, 2010, general contractor Tutor Perini Corporation has 120 days to excavate the entire runway, widen it from 45.7 m to 61 m, and rebuild it with 46 cm of concrete on the mainline, and hot-mix asphalt on the shoulders. Heading up the efforts to remove the existing runway—the majority of which was built with asphalt —is subcontractor Intercounty Paving Associates. This Hackettstown, New Jersey-based organization, founded in 1997 by brothers Carl and John Lizza, is a full-service construction company specializing in asphalt paving and milling. For the JFK Bay Runway project, Intercounty Paving is handling all the milling as well as the placement of hotmix asphalt on the shoulders of the main runway. Of the 12 milling machines currently owned by Intercounty Paving, the eight newest ones (all purchased between 2004 and 2008) are Roadtec RX-900 cold planers. Five of these 950-hp milling machines are equipped to make 3.8 m cuts; the other three are capable of 2.2 m cuts. And all eight are on the JFK Bay Runway site. "We will be running the 12-footers on the main runway," said Joseph LaPlaca, milling superintendent for Intercounty Paving. "The 7- foot machines will be working outside the main runway, on the taxiways, the tie-ins, and the old shoulders." After beginning work on the mainline on March 2, the Intercounty Paving milling crews were already nearing completion when LaPlaca was interviewed during the third week of the project. "The job has been going very well for us," said LaPlaca. "A lot of that success has to do with our firepower. I believe in horsepower. I wouldn't buy anything other than the Roadtec RX-900 with 950 horsepower. I am a believer that it is better to have the power and not need it than to need the power and not have it." write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Construction News :: home page |