Dover AFB completes construction on one of its runways

The skies above the the Dover Air Force Base are going to be a lot busier, that’s because as of Friday, one of their major runways has re-opened after a year and a half of renovations. During the ribbon cutting ceremony, a C-5 and a C-17 landed to commemorate the opening of the runway.

“Today it was a tough day to imagine happening,” says Lt. Col. Kevin Golart.

Lt. Col. Charles Throckmorton, the operations advisor for the project,  admits the base faced challenges when their then 69 year old runway had to close down during renovations.

“It takes away half our capability. Being without this primary runway took away some of our instrument capabilities. The ability to land in really bad weather,” says Ltl. Col. Charles Throckmorton.

Due to the construction,  some of their missions had to be held on their second runway, which had weight limitations because it is also in need of maintenance.

“For the last 8 months we’ve had to have our maintainers and our load masters working out of New Jersey to keep the C-5 mission going without break and service,” says Lt. Col. Golart.

Air force officials tell us the project cost approximately 112 million dollars,  but most importantly extended the lifespan of the runway to up to 75 years.

“We completely removed this entire runway, replaced all the base layer underneath. And rebuilt it all the way up just like a cake. So we have all new concrete, LED Lightning,all new approach system, all new markings, and the entire air field environment has been replaced,” says Lt. Col. Throckmorton.

The base is also currently working on repaving their second runway which is expected to be completed next summer.