How to improve your airport’s Pavement Classification Number (PCN)
An airport’s PCN determines what planes can and can’t land which is usually based on their weight and size. You can build the biggest hangars, the most luxurious customer lounges and it would all mean nothing if the runway, taxiway and hardstand pavements can’t support the traffic you are wanting to attract. Pavement Management Services can perform a Heavy Weight Deflectometer test on your runway, taxiway and apron pavements to understand the mechanistic properties of the pavement and how strong the overall pavement is. When combined with geotechnical or Ground Penetrating Radar data, we can then backanalyse the surface deflection data to determine the strength of the subterranean pavement layers. This will result in a comprehensive snapshot of your pavement’s load-bearing characteristics.
From here, our team of experienced aviation pavement engineers will perform all the necessary calculations to produce your airport’s PCN number – presented in a complete pavement report. Suppose you want to improve your airport’s PCN? Where’s the best place to start? It all comes down to the design of your pavements.
Pavement Management Services removes the guesswork out of airport pavement design by combining traditional pavement design principles with contemporary pavement design strategies to obtain a better understanding of the mechanistic properties of your pavements. First, PMS will utilize the Falling Weight Deflectometer results gathered during the PCN assessment as a starting point to understand the pavement’s mechanistic properties. Following this step, PMS will commission a geotechnical investigation (supported by Ground Penetrating Radar) to gather samples for material testing and to identify how the layer thicknesses change along the runway. When combined with the FWD data, PMS can determine the in-situ performance of the pavement and determine remaining life and the current pavement’s performance properties.
With the field work done and dusted, PMS will hit the books combining the most recent airport pavement engineering guidelines and studies with our 40 years of experience to produce the optimal design. PMS will utilize the latest technologies to perform simulations on any prospective pavement design options and weigh in on each one’s cost, performance and design life. All pavement design options are then presented in an easy-to-understand report.
Click here to learn more about Pavement Management Services airport pavement services.
