by Chris Sasser,
Texas Transportation Institute
When local RAMP Coordinator Tracy Cumby first stood at the end of the Abernathy Municipal Airport runway a few years ago, he couldn’t be blamed if he scratched his head and chuckled a little after examining the myriads of problems the tiny airport faced.
The virtually dormant airport had recently been awakened by the buzz of area crop dusters, which were now using the air strip as a hub thanks to the area wide participation in a boll weevil eradication program. The city manager realized the dilapidated airport needed help, and quick.
Thankfully, providing expedient help is what the routine airport maintenance program (RAMP) is all about.
How it Began
Since 1996, RAMP has been assisting general aviation airports throughout Texas by providing matching grants for airport improvements. These improvement funds primarily apply to maintenance but may also be used for construction as long as airside improvement requirements are met.
RAMP was originally conceived by then-new Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Aviation Division Director Dave Fulton, who presided over a similar program in Tennessee.
“When Dave came aboard, there was a tremendous emphasis placed on rebuilding the infrastructure of our airports,” says Megan Caffall, TxDOT airport planner and former RAMP manager. ‘We created RAMP to give airport managers incentive to maintain these improvements over time.”
What began as a $10,000 per airport per fiscal year pilot grant program has grown to $50,000 (airport/year) with just under 180 airports participating in 2007. And as of December 1, 2008, already nearly 120 airports have applied for the 2009 grants.
Kari Campbell, who took over as RAMP manager last summer, says that program growth and exposure are always a priority and wants to use a teamwork approach to achieve these goals.
“Right now our focus is on getting more involvement from our TxDOT districts to help us spread the word in their areas and regions as to what is available,” says Campbell. “Our local districts can provide a lot of these services to the airports that are less costly but still maintain a high quality of work.”
“We also want to focus more on projects. The primary concept of the program is to reduce long-term costs by encouraging preventive maintenance. To have the knowledge and resources of our district personnel available to our partners at the local government level will facilitate better long-range planning and encourage the implementation of maintenance projects. Funding projects that have been well-planned will prove to be the best use of local and state funds and the need for expending resources on emergency repairs should decrease over time,” says Campbell.
Back to Abernathy
The Abernathy airport rehab project is a textbook example of the TxDOT district teamwork Campbell promotes.
”When I pulled into the Abernathy airport on the access road, my first impression was that the road was literally falling apart,” says Cumby. “The edges were broken off the runway and the pavement was just shot with alligator cracking and failures. At one time someone had come in and done a chip seal so there was loose rock everywhere. There was rutting that was holding water on the end of the runway, so that was a dangerous situation. The vegetation was out of control. It was just a mixed bag of problems.”
Realizing he had immediate problems that had to be fixed, Cumby used a combination of RAMP funds and good ol’ fashioned West Texas “can do” attitude.
“I came up with the idea that the best thing for us to do is come in with a TxDOT crew to perform the prep work on the facility, such as sweeping, blade level-up and patching. This was cheaper than contracting the job out,” says Cumby. “Then I contracted for someone to do the slurry seal and final striping. My whole idea was to get the job done because there was an immediate need.”
The project was completed in under a week and now the city of Abernathy has a safe, functional air strip to service their clients.
”Tracy’s work at the Abernathy airport represents what this program is all about,” says Fulton. “It was a creative use of the available funds to help this small airport and their community.”
Here to Help
Another bonus of RAMP is that the grant funds are easy to apply for and are available quickly. “With the appropriate paperwork filled out, this grant can be awarded in a week’s time,” says Campbell. “I encourage anyone to contact us for more information and let us see how RAMP can help your airport.”
For more information, call the Aviation Division at 1-800-687-4568 (68-PILOT) for more information or go to Aviation on the TxDOT Web site: http://www.txdot.gov/services/aviation.
