From the Flight Deck

One hundred fifty days later, and voila! With those days come and gone, Marshfield Municipal Airport is left with a dazzling, beautifully reconstructed main ramp – as well as the far-flung east ramp (past the hangars) and its access road.

The planning of the airport’s safety improvement project began in 2002, literally. A dozen years and dozens of hearings later, in 2014, and phase one was done. In that phase, the runway expansion saw the 3,000-foot x 75-foot runway expanded to 3,900 feet x 100 feet, designed to allow aircraft to take off and land more safely.

This safety improvement project went through a long series of public hearings and permitting steps with the Airport Commission, the Marshfield Conservation Commission, the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals, Mass Audubon, Coastal Zone Management, MassDOT Aeronautics Division, the state Department of Environmental Protection, the FAA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and others.

Part of Phase 1’s focus was environmental. Bass Creek was restored along with other wetland habitat restoration initiatives, including adding turtle nesting habitat.

And now the ramp reconstruction project, which is part of the Land Use with Higher Potential Pollutant Loads (LUHPPL) initiative (a conditional order to the runway program), ensures continued operational safety and environmental compliance, bringing the airport to current FAA standards. “LUHPPL” means area where the land use has the potential to generate contaminated runoff, with concentrations of pollutants in excess of those typically found in stormwater. Some airport wetlands were relocated and plantings replaced as part of this project.

The airport access road, which enters the grounds from Gate 1 coming in on Old Colony Lane, leads to the airport’s fuel farm, hangars, and the east ramp area, which was redone initially as part of this project phase. The east ramp has large white lettering of “MARSHFIELD” painted onto it, as before, so that pilots have no doubt where they are when approaching the airport. That and a giant white and blue compass rose make location clear.

Enhancing airport safety was a high priority for the Marshfield Airport Commission and Shoreline Aviation, which manages the airport for the town, as well as the FAA and MassDOT’s Aeronautics Division. Those agencies funded and administered a grant, respectively, financing most of the project.

The project was designed by Airport Solutions Group, and the contractor was Lawrence Lynch Corp. Nick Prescott was the project representative with ASG.

“This was a great project to be part of,” Nick said. “I was able to capture plenty of knowledge and skills from the experienced team I was surrounded by. This knowledge and these skills will transfer to other projects in my future, and help shape me to be a better engineer.

“Thank you to Shoreline staff Keith Douglass, Jason Tibbbets, and Ben Garman, site superintendent John, as well as ASG staff,” Nick said, for helping to contribute to a great project for Marshfield Municipal Airport.”