Nashville International Airport (BNA) in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, will temporarily closed one of its four runways Monday, April 6, 2020 for a $51.3-million reconstruction, the first of its type at BNA in 11 years. According to a release, the effort is being done per Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards, and the project was planned prior to COVID-19’s creating a reduction in air travel.
“Runway 2 Right, 20 Left” (2R/20L) is the easternmost of BNA’s four runways and situated across Donelson Pike. It has been in operation for 30 years. The contractor is Hi-Way Paving Inc., with a combination of Garver and Atkins North America handling design. Gerald Jasper, Airport Consultant-American Concrete Pavement Association-Southeast-(ACPA-SE) stated, “The project to reconstruct the runway, parallel taxiway, and connecting taxiways is concrete. I estimate the square yards of P-501 to be approximately 210,000 SY of 16-inches of P-501 pavement. That would be about 93,300 CY of concrete at 500 lbs. cement per CY. I estimate the total cement to be 23,325 tons. This project will start soon with the hope of completing the Runway paving this year and the taxiway next year.”
The temporary closure of 2R/20L will have no impact on the level of air travel service provided at BNA. However, flight patterns will change and are likely to increase flights over Donelson, East Nashville, Berry Hill, Oak Hill, and Crieve Hall.
The last time BNA officials undertook a runway reconstruction project was eleven years ago, in 2009. The start of this newest upgrade is only 19 days after after the Metro Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) reopened its John C. Tune Airport in West Nashville. Due to the March 3, 2020 tornado, the facility sustained an estimated $93-million infrastructure damage. (Link below to read more on the John C. Tune Airport).
The BNA runway is scheduled to reopen in late July 2021.
For the article titled “Airport to undertake $51M+ runway update”, please go to: www.nashvillepost.com/business/transportation/aviation/article/21126648/airport-to-undertake-51m-runway-update
To read more about the reopening of the John C. Tune Airport in Nashville, please go to April 19th Nashville Post article titled “Tune Airport set to reopen Friday”: www.nashvillepost.com/business/transportation/aviation/article/21123264/tune-airport-set-to-reopen-friday
Home photo: www.bnavisionnashville.com