Step on a crack

EPHRATA — If Port of Ephrata Manager Mike Wren has his way, there soon won't be a crack on the Ephrata airport runway.

Tuesday, the City of Ephrata and the port district unveiled the Crafco Super Shot melter, a piece of equipment the entities are sharing.

As city officials and port employees looked on, Rick Fulwiler of Spokane-based Arrow Construction Supply demonstrated the machine, filling in cracks on the runway with a hot asphalt-rubber blend substance, which needed to reach 380 to 410 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wren was originally looking at purchasing the equipment. Hiring out such machinery is expensive and less convenient, he said, so one tends to let the pavement get in even worse shape before calling someone in to do anything about it.

Wren asked the state Department of Transportation's aviation division for $20,000 for crack sealing, which he matched.

"Then I went to the city and said, 'Hey, we only use it a couple times a year; you guys need it a couple times a year, how about if we split the cost?'" Wren added. "Which freed up 12,000 more dollars for me to buy materials to put in the cracks instead of owning my own machine I don't need 360 days a year."

"It's a maintenance tool that allows us to actually save a lot of money — over having a contractor do it, we can do it with our own forces," City of Ephrata Public Works Director Bill Sangster agreed. "It allows the maintenance money to spread further out, so we can get more accomplished."

Every city needs crack filling, and everybody should be doing a certain amount of it, Sangster said.

"Any time two municipalities can share something for the greater good, I think it's going to work out," Sangster said.

The port and the city have an interlocal agreement for the machine.

"We work real well with them, they work real well with us and they've already started, so it looks good," Sangster said.

Wren said the port district is turning an older runway into a runway for gliders and building a taxiway for $3 million this year, beginning in June. Design work has been going on for the last year. Funding comes from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Next year, Wren said, the port district is rehabilitating a runway for $4 million, with funding also coming from the FAA.

"From the facilities department, we're saving our asphalt we do have," port Facilities and Operations Manager Kurt Oxos said. "They're only going to get worse, so you have to close them up. From the standpoint of facilities, it's pavement maintenance."

Oxos said the asphalt is 60 years old.

"What happens is the cracks just get bigger, and they get wider," he said. "Then you've got weed control issues in the cracks."

The equipment is necessary in order to protect the surface and prevent further water damage, and increase safety of the glider runway, Wren explained.

"Especially since they're tail-wheel airplanes and they have little wheels on them, they'll get in these cracks and it could cause a safety problem," he said.

In talking with the Federal Aviation Administration last week, Wren asked for and received $30,000 for additional crack sealing material prior to painting over the new glider runway.