BergerWorld: 4th Quarter 2006

Tacoma Narrows Airport is a general aviation facility primarily serving single-engine aircraft. Located in a picturesque rural setting four miles west of Tacoma, Washington, and minutes from Seattle, it is rapidly becoming the airport of choice for general aviation pilots in South Puget Sound. The city of Tacoma, which owns and operates the airport, recently selected Berger/ABAM to design improvements to the Runway Safety Area (RSA) for the facility.

The function of the RSA is to provide a safe place for aircraft to overrun if they do not take off as planned and to land safely if they undershoot the runway threshold. To meet current FAA standards, the RSA requires an object-free, cleared and graded surface area extending 1,000 feet beyond the threshold of the existing runway. Because Stone Drive is located too close to the end of the runway, providing an additional 1,000-foot extension proves a difficult task. Instead of rerouting Stone Drive, Berger/ABAM has designed a 500-foot lid over the roadway, equal in width to the runway's safety area. The Team also lowered the surface of Stone Drive to accommodate standard vertical vehicular clearances inside the tunnel. The lid over the tunnel would comprise the safety area, a flat grassy surface able to withstand landings by light aircraft. In the event of future growth at Tacoma Narrows Airport, the design also allows for a longer operational runway over Stone Drive for larger aircraft.