Arora Included in Airport Improvement Magazine

Arora Engineers, Inc. (Arora) was included in the September 2021 issue of Airport Improvement Magazine in an article entitled, “St. Pete-Clearwater Int’l Expedites Rehab Project by Shifting Commercial Traffic to Crosswind Runway.” The article discusses the rehabilitation of Runway 18-36 at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE). Runway 18-36 sorely needed the recently completed $24.1 million rehabilitation since the last time it had been repaved was in 2009. Repair was deemed necessary due to pavement distress including longitudinal cracking, raveling, and weathering along the runway.

In addition to improving the pavement, the project upgraded airfield lighting. Arora designed and provided construction administration support of the associated electrical engineering, lighting and navigational aids. Crews replaced traditional centerline and touchdown zone lights with LED fixtures, and upgraded high-intensity edge lights with new incandescent fixtures. David Williams, Practice Lead for Airfield Electrical at Arora, remarks the airport also replaced centerline and touchdown zone 30-watt constant current regulators with 10-kW regulators, which will further trim energy use. “Just changing out lights doesn’t equate to energy savings,” explains Williams. “If you put in 30-kW regulators and you only need 10-kW regulators, you may still draw up to 30 kW. You must resize the regulators to achieve maximum energy savings. With LEDs and the right regulators, we typically see an energy savings of more than 50%.”

David Williams goes on to say that PIE is one of only 31 airports and one of only 49 approaches in the United States that have runways with displaced thresholds greater than 700 feet and centerline lights without high-intensity approach lighting systems. “This application required coordination with PIE Ops, their air carrier Allegiant’s OpSpecs and the FAA,” Williams remarks.

Overall, the project was a success due to the constant communication between airport staff, designers, and construction staff. The airport, Arora, and Kimley-Horn worked through challenges together and provided PIE with updated airfield lighting products and infrastructure that will help them continue to improve and maintain their airfield.

To read the full article, click here.