Lake Placid Airport, located in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, is a public-use airport with a single runway measuring 4,200 ft by 60 ft. The airport was having issues with wide transverse cracks on the runway and attempted to use conventional methods such as hot-mix asphalt and crack fillers, but was not having success. The design and engineering firm in charge of the repairs had previously seen a presentation on Crafco PolyPatch and thought it might be the best solution for the transverse cracks. The project also included random crack sealing and sections of full-depth remove and replace. Bothar Construction was awarded the project and was given a construction schedule of 7 days, which included full closure of the airport runway.
For the transverse cracks at Lake Placid Airport, a 6-in.-wide by 3-in.-deep cut was milled over the crack providing a reservoir to accept a sufficient amount of the patching material to accommodate pavement movement. The cut was centered over the each crack. The repair area was blown clean and dried using a hot air lance and then the crack was filled flush to the bottom of the reservoir using Crafco Roadsaver 221 crack sealant.
The patching material was applied in two lifts, with the first lift filled to within ¾ in. of the pavement surface. The material of the first lift was manipulated into place using heated tools and the second lift was applied using a box lute, which provides the specified overband width and thickness. The edges of the overband were then heated using a torch to ensure a flush, well-adhered finished application.
The Lake Placid Airport project took place in September 2008 and over two years later the patching material continues to perform when all other materials had failed. It also has increased the safety and ride quality of the runway while also preventing infiltration of water and incompressibles.
