How much does it cost to maintain an EMAS?

By: Dana Peffer, Life Cycle Management Director, Runway Safe

You have taken a major step in providing an innovative safety strategy for your airport operators and passengers by investing in an EMAS. So how do you guard that investment?

Our most frequently asked question is ‘How much does it cost to maintain an EMAS?”. The simple answer is: That depends on you.

Much like changing the oil in your car or getting new tires, a few simple, yet vital maintenance items will need to be addressed over time. Address minor repairs before they become major headaches. Incorporate the following list of services into your standard airport pavement routine maintenance plan, and you will be taking the crucial steps required to get the full 20 years from your bed.?

Inspections: While you are performing monthly inspections of your EMAS, you are busy.?Operations are responsible for 1,000 things all at once.?They are the resident security team, grass cutter, snow remover, painter, carpenter, fire patrol, debris remover, wildlife control…well you get the idea. EMAS is all we do.?We are on an EMAS bed three or more times a week and we have seen it all. Since we have the knowledge, expertise, and experience, we can often spot things that you may not notice.?An annual inspection allows us to work with you to address an issue before, well, it becomes an issue.

Field Strength Test* (FSTs): Inspections are a great start to maintaining your bed. But we sometimes need to take it a step further. Think of an FST this way.?If you are buying a house, do you ask the home inspector to just check the exterior??Or do you want him inside, checking plumbing, and electricity, or crawling through the attic??By performing an FST every five years you can measure how the interior of your bed is performing. Is it keeping out moisture? How is the strength holding up? How is the bed performing over time? Will my bed last 20 years? 25? More? These are all questions that can start to be answered with FST. By year 15 you will have a pretty good idea of how your bed is performing by comparing 3 separate readings over the 15-year period. This will be a key factor in determining when you need to begin discussions about bed replacement.

Training: How great would it be if you could do repairs correctly when you need them done? How helpful would it be to know what to do should you have an incursion? What if you can keep up with regulations and regulatory bodies? This is where training comes into play. If you are in the US and a 139 airport you are required to have certification on file every 24 calendar months. Training includes how you properly repair your tape, how to repair a section of the shield, and what to do if you lose a top tray.?These are all items, plus so much more, that are covered in our IM&R Training.

Seam Seal Rehabilitation* (SSR): When it comes to a functioning EMAS, water is not our friend. That is why every seam is sealed to reduce entry points for moisture. Imagine your EMAS is a house, and the seals that are over the seams are a roof. Much like the roof of your house, seam seals reduce entry points from all the things outside that you want to keep out. If your roof starts to fail, do you wait until it is a critical point, and you have pots and pans all over your house collecting rainwater - meaning you must replace your tv every 8 weeks because of leaks? On top of that, you now have wood rot. Or do you replace the roof when you begin to see the normal wear and tear to protect your investment? While a typical seam seal will happen between years 7 and 10, by allowing us to monitor your EMAS, we can let you know when it is time to change those seals and be with you every step of the way.

Materials: By using and ordering repair materials from Runway Safe, including keeping some suggested inventory items, you can rest assured you are using the precise products required on an EMAS. We have spent years testing, re-testing, and testing some more EMAS materials to assure that the bed will perform the ways you need it to if the time should ever come.

Service Agreements:?Does red tape sometimes get in your way? Frustrated when you need material or repair that is delayed due to policies and procedures? On a strict budget that needs to project three or more years in advance. All are common problems that we have a solution for. We can customize multiyear service agreements with an array of services based on your needs.?And for bonus points, you even get a discount!

Hopefully, this will give you a better idea of a few of the many ways we are here for you. While these are our top services, these are only a few of the ways we are here to help.

We believe in creating and developing lasting relationships that can provide long-term safety solutions.?We will help you save lives.?By using our list of services and certified materials, we can provide routine maintenance solutions and certified materials to address minor repairs before they become major headaches. Let us show you how you can incorporate the Life Cycle Management team at Runway Safe into your airport master plan to provide guidance in maintaining and preserving your EMAS for the next 20 years.

Have a specific question??Email me at [email protected] or visit our website at https://insights.runwaysafe.com/lifecyclemanagement.

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*Only for the EMASMAX product