Grand Forks AFB begins runway resurfacing project

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. BreeAnn Sachs
  • 319th Reconnaissance Wing public affairs
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  

Work has officially begun on the $20.4 million resurfacing project for the runway, here.

The project is estimated to take six months. The top 4 inches of existing asphalt will be removed during a mill and overlay process. This will replace 10,270 feet of the runway surface originally installed in 2005.

“The runway is about ten years past the recommended period of renovation, and we are excited to see the hard work of our civil engineers, contracting personnel and operations support personnel all come together,” said Lt. Col. Eugene Bently, commander for the 319th Civil Engineer Squadron. “This has been a highly anticipated project for years, with advocation at multiple command levels and even within the Senate. Various key leaders may even have small chunks of our degraded runway sitting on their desk.”

To prepare for the project, the 319th Reconnaissance Wing temporarily relocated the RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 fleet to Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, in early April of this year.

The temporary relocation facilitates launch and recovery operations for the Global Hawk and ensures continuation of operations at the 319th RW’s geographically separated units the 7th Reconnaissance Squadron at Sigonella Naval Air Station, Italy and the 4th Reconnaissance Squadron at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

“Time and time again, our Global Hawk aircrew and maintenance personnel prove to be a very agile and adaptable,” said Col. Alfred Rosales, commander for the 319th RW. “This temporary relocation is a display of the flexibility of this aircraft and how laser focused our airmen are on continuing the mission. They understand the criticality of the RQ-4 and how important the situational awareness they facilitate for our joint force commanders is to the fight.”

The Global Hawks will continue to be piloted remotely by aircrew assigned to the 348th Reconnaissance Squadron at Grand Forks AFB during the relocation.

The project is estimated to be completed in September, when the RQ-4 fleet will return to Grand Forks AFB and the 319th RW and collocated mission partners will resume local flying operations.

“This project improves power projection capabilities for not just the 319th RW mission, but also our mission partners at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Grand Forks County’s GrandSKY and will improve our support to the University of North Dakota’s pilot training program,” said Rosales.

Rosales added, while the RQ-4 flying mission is relocated the wing’s new mission to host Air Combat Command’s Point Defense Battle Lab will continue local flying operations during the closure.

The PDBL is an initiative subordinate to ACC’s Point Defense Task Force and is tasked with exercising existing Counter-small Unmanned Aerial System technology to develop tactics, techniques and procedures necessary for U.S. Air Force installations in the continental United States to defend against aerial threats.

“The reduction in air traffic during this construction project is an opportunity for our PDBL team to increase exercises with Counter-small Unmanned Aerial Systems,” said Rosales. “They will essentially have sanitized airspace here and can also focus on our internal drone pilot program as we work Small Unmanned Aerial Systems into wing readiness exercises and inspections.”

Rosales added, the Grand Forks community can expect a reduction in aircraft flying overhead but that isn’t reflective of the amount of work the airmen of the 319th RW are executing day in, and day out.

“Our airmen here will remain gainfully employed supporting deployments across the globe, continuing the Global Hawk mission, executing our High-Frequency Global Communications System operations, oversight of the E-11 Battlefield Airborne Communication Node mission, supporting the Space Development Agency’s operations and surging the Air Force’s point defense capabilities,” said Rosales.