Evaluation of Trapezoidal Shaped Grooves

Construction Process. One objective of Phase Four was to compare differences in the construction methods, resources, and requirements between the standard and trapezoidal-shaped grooves in a real airport environment on an in-service runway. The intent of monitoring the construction process on the airport was to identify any differences in the construction aspect of the operation when performing the installation of trapezoidal-shaped grooves in a realistic airport environment. In July 2007, researchers initiated the installation of the grooves on Runway 02-20 at MCAF Quantico. The contractor was able to mobilize all of the grooving equipment necessary to perform the installation from their facility in Pennsylvania. The manpower, cutting equipment, supplies, water trucks, sweepers, and vacuum equipment used for the installation were the same equipment that would be used for a typical grooving job at any airport; the only exception was that the groove-cutting machine was fitted with the uniquely shaped blades that create the trapezoidal-shaped groove. For this installation, the contractor used a full-sized groove-cutting machine that was equipped with three cutting drums, as shown in figure 28.

Figure 28. Full-Size Groove-Cutting Machine at MCAF Quantico Similar to the groove installations at the NAPTF and ACY, the only noticeable issue was the time it took for the contractor to change the cutting blades on the groove-cutting machine when it was time to switch to a different groove pattern. As mentioned earlier in this report, this step would normally not occur in the real installation as the contractor would not be switching between the standard and trapezoidal blades. Figure 29 shows a different view of the groove- cutting machine that was used for this installation.

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