Business View Magazine | December 2018

186 187 “We are also moving into the five-year plan,” Stehmeier says. “It could be even sooner than that if we can raise the funds.We are looking to at least double our terminal ramp space where we park our commercial carriers.We’ve also moved the expansion of our terminal from the 20-year plan to the five-year plan, because we are at the point where we need to do that as well.” Another project that will begin next spring is made necessary, not by growth, but by the geolo- gy of the land St. George Regional occupies. “We will be closing next year on the 29th of May and then we will reopen the 26th of Sep- tember, basically a 120-day shutdown,” says Steh- meier. “The purpose of that shut-down will be to repair the runway.When they built the Airport, we knew there were some problems with blue clay out here. They thought they had engineered it correctly. The FAA signed off on the engineering and the specs. So we built it and the blue clay is what the engineers are calling ‘super blue clay’ or ‘aggressive blue clay’ and it has caused the runway to ripple. So what we’ve done is, until we close it and do the ‘big fix,’ we’ve gone out and basically milled-out asphalt and replaced it. We’ve kept the center portion of the runway flat so it meets FAA safety specs. “What we’ll do during that shutdown is take 5,400 feet of the runway, basically right in the middle, and we will go down 17 feet and ex- cavate all of that out, the entire width of the runway. The runway is 150 feet wide, but it will probably be about 200 feet wide, because you have to have a slope.We will excavate all of that dirt, all of the blue clay, and then they will bring in a material that’s like the clay cap that’s used in ST. GEORGE REGIONAL AIRPORT landfills. It’s optimally moisturized and, basically, water does not go through it. On top of that will be engineered fill and two feet below the surface, they will put in a new water barrier, about ¾ of an inch thick. That will go from 200 off the right side, all the way across the runway, to 200 on the other side. That will be for a length of 7,000 feet.” Stehmeier says the Airport’s engineers believe those measures, along with some related work, will prevent the runway surface from being ad- versely affected by the clay’s expansion should it get wet in the future. “We’re hoping that the engineers are correct and that we won’t have to do anything other than maybe an overlay for strengthening of the asphalt for the next 20 years,” he adds. Stehmeier says concerns that the temporary closure might cause some passengers to become loyal customers of the closest major hub, McCa- rran International in Las Vegas, are mitigated by several factors. “We’re a smaller airport, so going through TSA takes five-to-seven minutes, even with the worst of traffic,” he explains. “Our parking