Once billed as the “air gateway to America”, La Guardia has fallen into such disrepair that former VP Joe Biden once referred to it as a “Third World Country.” La Guardia’s isolated terminals, a product of sporadic and piecemeal development, hinders plane movement which in turn leads to gate delays.
A huge construction project, carrying an estimated $8 billion price tag, is now underway to completely renovate the troubled airport. The project will link all four terminals through one new facility that will be built closer to the adjacent Grand Central Parkway. Pushing the airport toward the highway will make way for two miles of aircraft taxiways to improve plane movement and decrease delays.
Paving forms supplied to Skanska/Walsh JV by MFC are playing an important part in the renovation project. Two sets of DUAL forms provide four (4) different concrete paving depths: 20”, 16” 12” and 10.5”. The larger Dual forms (16” x 20”) are used for apron paving (primarily 17’ x 17’ squares) which were typically poured 3 lanes wide (51’) by 400’ to 500’ long. The apron is 16” thick, but increases to 20”thick where it abuts trench drains.
The 16”x 20” Dual forms were project specific to accommodate the unusual specification for dowel bar placement on 18” centers (16” side only). Two non-standard form lengths were connected to achieve a 17’ long form incorporating special hole punching and corresponding dowel bar supports. In the words of Stephen Vidafar, Airside Civil Project Engineer for Skanska/Walsh JV, “The dowel spacing has worked out great and really minimized drilling“.
The other set of Dual forms (10.5” x 12”) are being used for both the 12”thick pavement area for overnight aircraft parking as well as the 10.5” thick concourse pavement where the slabs are not subject to aircraft loading. In addition to the taxiway forming, MFC also supplied median barrier forms and paving forms for the improved road network surrounding La Guardia.