Originally published in 2019
By Chris Sasser
Texas A&M Transportation Institute
Sugar Land Regional Airport (KGSR) is no stranger to growth. The award-winning airport located in west Houston has long been regarded as the go-to reliever airport for corporate aviation serving the energy corridor among other high profile clientele.
In 2011, the airport began an expansive multi-year taxiway relocation project that was necessary to meet the Federal Aviation Administration design standards for maintaining proper separation between the runway and taxiway. If one thought this project would be as simple as pouring concrete on the ground and calling it good, one would have been sorely mistaken.
“Basically this project occurred because the aircraft were increasing in size at the airport,” explained Sugar Land Regional Airport Director of Aviation Phil Savko. “We were moving up to Global Express and Gulfstream 650 size jets with larger wingspans that required more separation.”
The airport received a $12 million dollar grant from TxDOT to fund a portion of the Taxiway F relocation project. The project kicked off in 2011 when the airport acquired 80 acres of land from the adjacent prison facility. Then a lengthy environmental assessment followed.
The multi-phase project has involved constructing the taxiway in sections using bridges with 45-foot piers to level the ground.
“One section is 3,500 feet of pavement with three bridges,” said Savko. “It’s quite an engineering challenge. During this time we also had to detour through all the drainage because we were having issues with water coming back out onto the airfield. We were able to put about a mile of underground pipe in to resolve a lot of those issues.”
Complicating the project was the arrival of Hurricane Harvey in the summer of 2017, which dumped over 40 inches of rain on the airport, bringing construction to a halt.
“Certainly this project has been an exercise in patience and learning to overcome adversity,” said Savko. “But we’re moving forward. Current progress on the project has allowed the airport to open over 5,000 feet of new pavement to aircraft traffic. This includes new LED lights, signs and markings. This also involves renaming our entire taxiway system. The next steps will be to construct new connectors from the taxiway to the runway.”
The multi-phase project is a little over halfway complete as of the summer of 2018. Though there is still much work to be done, the airport continues to focus on service for their clients as much of the construction is done at night to minimize aircraft movement disruption.
“We’ve really stepped it up on this project so that we’ve taken our airport to the next level,” said Savko. “TxDOT Aviation has been a great partner to work with on this project.”
For more information about Sugar Land Regional Airport, please visit their website at https://www.sugarlandtx.gov/1073/Airport .
