Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), north of Anchorage, is a critical link in security operations in both the Pacific and Arctic regions. As its strategic importance has grown, the US Air Force has sought to expand the base’s second runway to accommodate the military’s largest aircraft.
There was a big problem in blocking the base’s 16/34 north-south extension: the 12 million cubic meters of material at the end.
“To extend the runway, we were going to a small mountain that was already there, a glacial place,” says Daly Yates, the US Army Corps of Engineers’ project manager for the runway extension JBER.
A $309 million project to extend the runway by 2,900 feet to reach a total length of 10,000 feet was launched in November 2022. It was the largest Pacific Air Forces construction project awarded to date.
The project is led by Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center Detachment 2 and the Air Force Civil Engineer Center. It is being built in collaboration with the USACE Alaska District, JBER’s 3rd Operations Support and the 673rd Civil Engineer Squadrons, as well as the Facilities Engineering Directorate of AFCEC.
Kiewit Infrastructure acts as the main contractor with various contracting partners completing a range of tasks including excavation, asphalt paving, utility piping, power and communication line placement and concrete batching and placement.
The sheer volume of excavation is equal to about 800,000 street legal dump truck loads. If parked end to end, it’s enough to stretch from Anchorage to San Antonio, Texas.
“That’s not how the crow flies, it’s on the highway system,” Yates says. “Imagine the amount of fuel.”
Fortunately for the project, the excavated mountain is being used by the Air Force both as fill on the base and to fill existing gravel pits to limit hillside drainage problems. Yates says all the locations are close by, ensuring the filler doesn’t travel far. Approximately 11 million cubic meters have been removed from the site to date.
The runway expansion required the removal of 12 million cubic meters of material.
Photo courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers
Strategic need
When completed in the fall of 2025, the extension will ensure that the 10,000-foot length matches that of the existing east-west runway 06/24, thereby creating efficiencies and improved operational options for the strategic base located at approximately 3,000 miles from Washington, DC, 3,000 miles. from Europe and 3,000 miles from Asia.
The JBER supports missions involving some of the Air Force’s largest aircraft, such as the C-17 Globemaster III, KC-10 tankers, and KC-135 Stratotankers. The runway extension is necessary to support these heavier aircraft which require a shallower climb because they cannot gain altitude as quickly as lighter aircraft.
“This has been a long time coming in terms of flexibility and reliability of operations here,” says Col. Jeffrey “LJ” Rivers, commander of the US Air Force Operations Group, adding that at this time the improvement of the JBER runway has become a strategic key. focus for national security.
“To extend the track, we were going to a small mountain that was already there.”
—Daily Yates Last, Project Manager, US Army Corps of Engineers
With 10,000 feet needed to handle large-frame aircraft, JBER had a heavy reliance on the east-west runway 06/24. This created operational congestion. When 6/24 is closed due to bad weather, it limits JBER’s ability to project power to the Indo-Pacific region. Extending Runway 16/34 to match 6/24 will provide full capability for all airframes and optimize mission performance.
“The challenges we have here are mostly related to the weather,” says Rivers. With the high volume of traffic that uses the east-west runway, bad weather conditions reduce the ability to get planes in and out quickly.
By expanding the north-south option, it “creates accessibility” because multiple usable runways will allow the airport to respond to a variety of conditions in Anchorage.
Then there is an improvement in local operational efficiency. Rivers says a significant number of daily training missions head north.
The Anchorage Bowl, areas of the city’s municipal and geographic region, is one of the busiest air spaces in the world. The FAA has an entire section on regulations for the area due to congestion with aircraft operating through the airspace. JBER flights, commercial flights arriving and departing from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, flights at Lake Hood Seaplane Base (the world’s busiest seaplane base) and nearby Merrill Field add traffic in the Anchorage Bowl.
The expanded runway will allow military aircraft to recover and depart to and from the north, eliminating the need to recover and depart within congested areas to the east and west.
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is home to some of the military’s largest aircraft, including the C-130J Super Hercules.
Photo courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers
Improved efficiency
Reduced congestion makes widening the runway “a no-brainer,” even as it improves efficiency, Rivers says. The base can spend more time training instead of having to continually clear the space for civilian air traffic. Taking off north instead of east or west is expected to improve operational efficiency by up to 9%, which equates to millions of dollars in savings each year, which will ultimately offset the expansion money.
“The Runway 16/34 extension is a real work project,” Pat Harrison, Kiewit Infrastructure’s Alaska area manager, said in a statement when the project was announced.
The project will also widen the two parallel taxiways, add an arming/disarming pad, upgrade the airfield lighting and instrument landing system, reorient Airlifter Drive around the end north of the extension, will relocate the perimeter fence of the airfield and reconfigure public services.
Yates says they’ve already helped stabilize existing roads and built a new road for future expansion.
Elmendorf Air Force Base was built approximately 80 years ago during World War II (it was merged with nearby US Army Fort Richardson in 2010). Yates says that as they move the work inside the current airfield, “we’re finding things that nobody knows about. As we’re digging, we’re coming across different site conditions.” He says it requires the team to be nimble and design unique approaches while handling unforeseen situations.
“It’s pretty commendable the things they’ve found and are working to keep it in the timeline. It’s pretty impressive.”
-Col. Jeffrey “LJ” Rivers, commander of the US Air Force Operations Group
Even the 12 million cubic meters of fill is a toned down figure thanks to engineers working to limit the amount of mountain needed for removal. The key change was that instead of keeping the track at a perfect 0% slope, which would have required a total of 20 million cubic meters of excavation, the team increased the gradient by adding the 1 % maximum allowed and saved 8 million cubic meters. of excavation The existing part of the track will remain at the original grade, while the addition will assume 1%.
The team has already had to save wetlands to the north and stabilize a lake with a wall of bentonite slurry 30 feet deep, 30 inches wide and 1,000 feet long. “This helped us prevent groundwater from flowing from these lakes into our now lower excavation area,” says Yates.
Alaska’s harsh winters have served as a year-round benefit to the project. Yates says mass excavation moves faster in the winter when the ground isn’t as wet. To do the job, the team employed seven CAT 777 off-highway trucks, six CAT 657 open bucket scrapers, eight CAT 745/Volvo 60A articulated transport trucks, two CAT D9 bulldozers, two CAT D10 bulldozers, one CAT excavator 395 and a PC2000 Surface Mining Excavator.
Yates points out that “this kind of equipment just doesn’t sit in Alaska,” asking Kiewit to put the equipment on barges and design a unique route to move the equipment from the port to the base via roads so as not to destroy the track public .
When it comes time to build the actual track, Yates says they’ll have batch plants on site for several different activities. An asphalt plant, a concrete plant and a plug mill will do everything from making coarse gravel for the base of the track to the necessary top layer.
Reconstruction of the track
Originally, the plan simply included overlaying the existing portion of the runway, which is also moved 400 feet to the north to meet the airfield’s design requirements, but that all changed. “When we got to the south end of the runway, we experienced some pretty drastic undulations that couldn’t be handled with a demo and overlay,” says Yates. Instead, crews will demolish and rebuild the “perfect runway for Air Force operational capability.” The entire surface will be brand new at 10,000 feet.
Rivers says that along with guidance, the upgrade provides “high-fidelity approaches” and a new instrument landing system provides a “very modern system and precision approach radar.” The project allows for future expansion at the base that goes with JBER’s position as a location that is “strategically important to us and our operations.”
Technical work and final paving and scraping are more affected by weather conditions.
“There’s no shortage of construction, and it’s a huge project when you look outside,” Rivers says. “It is being managed very well. It is quite commendable the things they have found and are working to keep it in the timeline. It’s pretty impressive.” n
