Grissom runway reopens Wednesday after repaving completed

“Dean Baldwin Painting had their planes scheduled in at 9 a.m. (today), and they’re going to be ramping up their work force,” he said. “We’ve been working with workforce development to help them get their workforce back up to their required strength.”

Some employees were laid off due to the repairs and maintenance, Tidd said. He did not elaborate on those layoffs.

Rick Smith, vice president of business development for Dean Baldwin, said he was happy with the runway’s reopening.

“It means a lot to us,” he said. “We’ll get a lot of people back to work.”

Tidd said the county-owned portion of the runway wasn’t upgraded, but rather had “maintenance that had to be done on it to make it safe to be able to use.”

He said the runway was never unsafe but could have become that way without maintenance, adding it would have “continued to deteriorate.”

 “The opportune time to do this is now with the runway shut down,” Tidd said during a special June meeting of the Miami County Council, referring to Grissom Air Reserve Base’s runway currently ongoing repairs. “It needs to get done. This is the community’s responsibility to do help service the airport and Dean Baldwin Painting.”

Portions of the runway had three inches of milling and repaving performed, while other areas went down an inch and a half. Other areas were milled down from heaving.

Tidd said he “really appreciates the cooperation of the 434th (Air Refueling Wing at Grissom) in being able to reduce the overall time involved to do this project and to also schedule it during what is normally Dean Baldwin’s slow time.”

He said another local business, Montgomery Aviation, had some business with helicopter traffic, but added “having the  runway back up will help them.”

Tidd also said he was glad Grissom’s KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft would be returning home.

A release from Grissom stated “nearly all” of the base’s aircraft had been operating Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio during the construction.

Col. Doug Schwartz, 434th Air Refueling Wing commander, said in the release he was “very excited to get our KC-135s back to Grissom as soon as we can.”

Grissom’s $3.2 million project “kicked off June 1 with a projected 45-day timeline, although (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) engineers had said that could be delayed slightly due to weather conditions,” the release stated.

John Robison, 434th civil engineer squadron chief engineer, said in the release that crews had been working 12 hours per day 7 days per week to stay on target for the reopening and that “every effort (was) being made to make sure this project is done on time.”

The project was originally slated to be done over 120 days, but 434th ARW personnel worked with the USACE to reduce that timeline down to 45 days, the release stated.

"We're doing this to prevent buckling of the runway due to thermal expansion," Robison said. "The pavement heaves up during the summer time, so we are going to replace expansion joints in the pavement that allow it to move around and prevent an unlevel pavement surface."

Six one-inch expansion joints are being replaced, and parts of the runway and taxiway surfaces are being repaved, the release stated.

"When we have to close down the runway, we make sure to do multiple projects at a time to limit the time it's closed," Robison said. The last time Grissom closed its airfield was in 2004 for a similar project.

Grissom officials have said the project is necessary for both military and civilian aviation use.

"At the end of the day, these repairs are absolutely necessary and will benefit both military and civilian aviation for years to come," said Col. Bryan Reinhart, 434th ARW vice commander, who oversaw the project's kickoff.

Tidd said the runway would likely remain open for the foreseeable future, saying the repairs were a “very once-in-a-great-while type of thing.”