From the Flight Deck

And now for the main event.

The smaller east ramp is redone. The back entrance road is almost done. Now for the big one – it’s all sights on the main ramp. And the next several days will see some serious demolition at Marshfield Airport.

That work began early on Monday, August 11, and by mid-morning significant progress had been made razing the old surface of the main ramp – the broad open asphalt area between the airport’s administration/terminal building and the maintenance and jet hangars, where aircraft are fueled, passengers are processed, and tie downs keep small planes from wandering. Big, heavy milling machines powering foot-long super-sharp blades dig through the old pavement and into the hard topsoil. The result is a ground mixture that will be bulldozed and some of which can be reused in a recipe for planned ramp reconstruction support layers. The amount left over will be hauled away and recycled into new product for other projects.

A Lawrence Lynch Corp. milling machine rips up main ramp asphalt and soil.

A second milling machine tears up the old main ramp surface.

Subsequent work will see deep soil cuts similar to the 32-inches removed at the east ramp. Two different foundational layers will be installed with new drainage before being topped with asphalt.

Construction is being performed by Lawrence Lynch Corp. The project was designed by Airport Solutions Group, which is overseeing the work.

During this process, which will take into mid-fall, main entrance Gate 2, next to the admin building, will be closed, and aircraft owners and charter customers are asked to park in front of the building instead of on the ramp. Airport manager Shoreline Aviation personnel will transport them to their destinations.

Milling machines rip up Marshfield Airport’s main ramp.

A bulldozer begins plowing up shredded surface material.

This ramp reconstruction project is the final phase of the airport safety improvement project initiated in 2002. A new, longer and wider runway was built in 2014, making takeoffs and landings safer. The ramp reconstruction project is part of the Land Use with Higher Potential Pollutant Loads (LUHPPL) initiative, a conditional order to the runway program. It is a complete reconstruction and improvement of the main ramp to its borders with Taxiway Alpha (which parallels the runway) and is essential to ensure continued operational safety and environmental compliance.

Enhancing airport safety is a high priority for the Marshfield Airport Commission and Shoreline Aviation, as well as the FAA and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Division, which fund and administer a grant, respectively, financing most of the project. This project – 23 years in the making – brings the airport to current FAA standards.

Planes are tied down on the completed east ramp.

The back entrance road to the east ramp is prepared for paving.