ACEC OH Honor Award for Rickenbacker with Cooley
Pictured from left to right: Rod Sommer, ACEC Ohio Chairman; Paul Ryan, Columbus Regional Airport Authority Project Manager; and Ben Cooley, CMT Project Manager

Crawford, Murphy & Tilly (CMT) was awarded an Honor Award at the American Council of Engineering Companies of Ohio (ACEC-OH) Engineering Excellence Awards banquet on March 12.  The winning project was the Rickenbacker International Airport Taxiway Rehabilitation and Modification of Standards Phase 1

Rickenbacker International Airport connects Columbus’ air cargo demand with the world, serving a mix of cargo, commercial, military and general aviation service. Newly-operating flights from Asia in the Group VI category demanded that the airfield be improved to meet this need.  CMT led a Taxiway Rehabilitation and Modification of Standards (MOS) – the first phase of this multi-year, three-phase design and construction effort.  This $6.5 million taxiway rehabilitation and reconstruction covered 5,500 x 75 feet of asphalt pavement.

What might have been a simple pavement rehabilitation project evolved into something much more thanks to an innovative approach to pavements that asks the engineer to look beyond textbook restorations and consider the added value that might be realized with a more creative solution.  Because the rubblization process would be well-suited to the particular pavement in need of reconstruction, and beneficial to the overall operational goals of the airport in general, CMT presented its case to the FAA at the ADO and national levels.  FAA’s eventual approval rested largely upon CMT’s airport pavement professionals demonstrating their expertise in deploying the rubblization technique successfully at other airports throughout the county.