From the Flight Deck

Work is zooming on Marshfield Municipal Airport’s main ramp reconstruction project. More than 10,000 cubic yards of soil and top coat have been removed, much of which is being repurposed into stabilizing support layers. Old content is mixed with new soil and stone according to a specific recipe (what isn’t used is hauled offsite to be repurposed for other projects). Support layers will be installed and then covered with new asphalt.

Thirty-two inches have been cut down into the ramp, which is the broad area between the airport terminal and administration building and airport manager Shoreline Aviation’s maintenance and jet hangars.

The terminal/admin building sits behind a mountain of soil mixture.

A giant pile of reclaimed material awaits installation.

This week contractor Lawrence Lynch Corp. is wrapping up excavation on a large sand pile, according to resident project representative Nick Prescott. Nick represents Airport Solutions Group, who designed the ramp project. He said Lynch was also working on drainage improvement installations and an infiltration system, which will occupy a 100 by 40-foot hole within the ramp area. That system is designed to direct stormwater runoff into the ground to be absorbed by the soil and filtered, replenishing groundwater resources.

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.

A plane takes off amid airport ramp construction.

New soil is mixed with old support layers and stone.

In the meantime, Cullen Electric is onsite doing underground electrical work to hook up future BETA Technologies electrical aircraft charging stations, similar to the ones installed here two years ago. Marshfield Airport is home for the state’s first electric aircraft charging stations (the airport also has Level 2 and 3 carside chargers for public EV use). BETA is one of the pioneers of electric aircraft and supporting infrastructure development.

Cullen is also installing some ramp outlet stations. And a wooden guardrail is being installed on the northern access road, at Gate 1, which accesses the airport fuel farm, private plane hangars, and the smaller east ramp, on the far side of the hangars. Shoreline will use that road to transport charter flight clients to departing aircraft. Charter clients are asked to park in the front of the terminal, on Old Colony Lane, instead of on the ramp.

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 brings the airport to current FAA standards.