Airfield Pavement

Deteriorated airport runways pose safety risks to planes taking off or landing. Although about three-quarters of the runways in GAO's database on pavement conditions were in good to excellent shape, one-fourth were rated only fair to poor. In the coming decade, many airports will face substantial work keeping runways in good shape, particularly in doing so at the least cost. The Federal Aviation Administration and pavement experts believe that the most economical way to lengthen pavement life at many airports is to rehabilitate runways when they are still in good condition. Waiting often increases costs because more expensive methods must be used. In all, about 26 percent of the runways in GAO's database had already reached or passed the point at which they could be rehabilitated most economically. The cost to keep runways in good condition during the next 10 years will exceed the average $162 million historically spent in the Airport Improvement Program for this purpose each year. For fiscal years 1997 and 1998, state and local airports have shown little interest in participating in the pilot program authorized by Congress for pavement maintenance grants at nonprimary airports.

GAO noted that: (1) most runway pavement is currently in generally good condition; (2) about three-fourths of the runways included in GAO's database on pavement condition were rated good to excellent, while one-fourth were rated fair to poor; (3) a statistical model predicted that most of the runways not in GAO's database were also in good to excellent condition; (4) however, in the next 10 years, many airports in GAO's database will face substantial work keeping runways in generally good condition; (5) FAA and pavement experts believe that the most economical way to lengthen pavement life at many airports is to rehabilitate runways when they are still in good condition; (6) waiting often increases costs because more expensive methods must be used; (7) the cost of keeping runways in generally good condition over the next 10 years will be beyond the average $162 million historically spent in the AIP for this purpose each year; (8) for the 35 percent of national system airports in its database, GAO estimated future costs in two ways; (9) assuming that airports could fund projects before runway pavement deterioration accelerated to the point at which more expensive approaches would have to be used, an estimated $1.38 billion would be needed at these airports over the next 10 years; (10) these airports could then choose a less expensive rehabilitation option, rather than a more costly reconstruction method; (11) assuming that these airports would have about $162 million per year in federal funds to spend, they would face an unmet need of $2.37 billion after 10 years, a higher amount than under the first estimate; (12) FAA's system for setting priorities among grant applications gives runway rehabilitation projects higher priority than most other projects; (13) however, FAA does not have an accurate, consistent source of information about detailed runway conditions at all airports in the national system to consider during this process; (14) for fiscal year (FY) 1997 and FY 1998, the states and local airport authorities have shown limited interest in participating in the pilot program authorized by Congress for pavement maintenance grants at nonprimary airports; (15) in FY 1997, FAA received expressions of interest from 14 airport owners and states that provide assistance to airports within their borders and awarded grants to 1 airport owner and 3 states; (16) six candidates expressed interest in participating in the second year of the program; and (17) a GAO survey of state aviation departments revealed no dominant reason for the limited amount of interest.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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