CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Travel peaks during the holidays, especially at airports like Gerald R. Ford International. To meet the demand, crews work around the clock to clear ice and snow and treat the tarmac and aircraft using it.
While airlines are strictly responsible for deicing planes, airports handle everything else — from taxiways and runways to the ramps where the gates are.
To determine when to deploy equipment, Mike Wouda, Ford Airport’s airfield maintenance manager, says his crews collaborate with air traffic controllers and the airport’s operations department.
“They will be out there with specialized tools called CFME (continuous friction measuring equipment) — it measures friction on the pavement areas,” he explained. “We’ll communicate, we’ll work together. Once we get to a point where we see that the friction on the pavement is dropping, we’ll schedule a closure and get our guys and equipment out there.”
Crews close one runway while keeping the other open for air traffic, forming a conga line to clear the snow. Instead of plows, the equipment uses brooms and blowers.
“It’s unlike plowing on the private side. We don’t plow and leave,” Wouda added. “We have to maintain clear pavement at all times. It doesn’t matter what the weather is doing.”
Instead of salt, crews use two different chemicals with a longer holding time to treat the tarmac.
“Salt is very corrosive to aluminum — airplanes are made out of aluminum,” Wouda explained. “We use potassium acetate in liquid form and sodium formate in solid form. During an event, mostly for icing, we’ll spray the entire surface — the entire length — with potassium acetate from our boom truck. For pretreatment, we’ll possibly use that plus some solid sodium formate.”
Each runway takes about 30 minutes to clear with the airport’s team of 25 crew members, who, according to Wouda, are truly blizzard-tested.
“They’re relentless. They’ll be out there for the entire shift just to make sure we have safe pavements,” he said. “We’ve been through every situation Mother Nature can give us. We were out there during the Blizzard of 2022 over Christmas. We never shut down. These guys were out there 24/7, making sure we had safe and effective pavement surfaces.”
The airfield maintenance facility doubled in size with a recent expansion, allowing the equipment to be ready at a moment’s notice. Wouda says equipment can now be deployed in three minutes — compared to 10 to 15 minutes before, when limited space made logistics more complicated.