People, machines tackle snow to keep airport runways clear

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) -

A hefty snowstorm will alter the rhythms of daily life, but it will not weaken the resolve of the snow fighters waging war on winter at Lehigh Valley International Airport.

What plays out on airport grounds is a small-scale, military-style mobilization, with those in charge drawing up plans and outlining tactics before dispatching people and equipment by the dozens.

So far, they’re winning the fight.

Battered this month by the biggest snowstorm to hit the region since 2016, LVIA’s snow operations team proved a formidable match. In the worst of conditions, the team took a divide-and-conquer approach to keep the airport operating and the parking lots and sidewalks clear.

That approach, while nearly invisible to the public, involves 14 pieces of dedicated equipment, reserve equipment and rental units, along with a standard of the runway asphalt being “no worse than wet” at all times. Now imagine meeting that standard during a powerful and prolonged nor’easter resulting in 27.3 inches of snow, the second-heaviest storm total in the airport’s history.

Flurry of blows

To maintain a safe airfield during any type of winter weather requires specialized training and advanced equipment. It also takes a dedicated crew, especially when faced with the flurry of blows landed by Mother Nature so far this winter.

While airports in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast can do little to insulate themselves from nature’s wrath, they have guys like Steven Connors, director of operations and safety for the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority, constantly maneuvering man and machine to fight the blowing and drifting snow.

“There’s a lot of coordination going on,” Connors said. “We rely on a lot of local weather forecasting services. We also reach out directly to the National Weather Service in Mount Holly (New Jersey) for a more detailed forecast for our specific location and go from there.”

The window to bring the plan together starts to close about 36 to 24 hours in advance of a storm, when coordination involves reserving hotel rooms and finalizing plans for both the airfield crew and the landside crew. The former works on the runways and taxiways, while the latter clears public walkways and parking lots.

“It’s about 25 folks … to make sure we can divide and conquer the storm,” Connors explained.

For a team whose goal is not just to endure, but to prevail against the snow, the arsenal includes 20-foot plow trucks, 25-foot snow brooms, high speed blowers and a tanker truck holding 3,500 gallons of potassium acetate (a deicer) to spray the runway.

It’s one thing to throw such impressive resources at the task of clearing endless heaps of snow and ice, but another to do it safely.

“Part of it is listening to the radio traffic and making sure that we’re doing everything safely,” said Superintendent of Maintenance Shane Warner. “So it’s not just talking amongst ourselves, it’s working with air traffic control at the same time. It’s not like the guys out on the (public) roadway. They get to get in their plow trucks and they can turn on a stereo and listen to music or something like that. We listen to our maintenance radios. But then we also have to listen to the tower radio in case we need to get off the runway in a hurry.”

Sometimes, no matter the resources thrown at the task, the airport needs to close to commercial and cargo flights until weather conditions improve. It means the imprint of winter could still be visible months from now on the economic bottom line of both the airport and the Lehigh Valley.

340 miles of airfield lanes

It’s the accessibility to pavement that drives the airport, and without it cleared, the economic effects could ripple throughout the region.

“Regardless of the type of aircraft, because we’re advertising an open airport or an open runway, the runway and taxiway services need to be maintained no matter who comes in,” Connors said.

There are 340 lane miles of airfield pavement, including runways, taxiways and ramps, and over 200 acres of pavement to clear, officials said. Allegiant, American, Delta and United all fly here, and FedEx and Amazon cargo planes come in, too.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic drove the number of passengers taking flights down, but the amount of cargo coming through the airport increased, as shoppers rely heavily on e-commerce.

Passengers creep back to Allentown airport even as some service remains shuttered »

Over 210 million pounds of air cargo was processed at the airport last year - nearly 15% more than 2019, according to data from airport officials. The number of passengers decreased by just over 57%, down to 390,764 from 911,970 in 2019.

Runways need to be cleared for emergency medical flights, too.

“They need to get in and out, and that’s really not scheduled. It’s not scheduled service,” Connors said. ” … We prioritize our response.”

A leader in snow ops

It takes quite a bit of snow and ice to completely close an airport these days. Thanks to the endless planning, snow-moving equipment, and specialized formulas of deicer designed to prevent corrosion, the team at LVIA can keep runways and taxiways clear long enough to get some air traffic in and out (as it did during this last nor’easter).

On a rotating schedule of 12-hour shifts, the same team also clears snow at Queen City Airport in Allentown and Braden Airpark in Forks Township. Some days have run more like a marathon than a sprint, with members of the snow ops team working more than 20 hours at a time.

The heavy equipment mixed with snow and ice can create hazardous working conditions for the team assigned to keep the runways and pavement cleared.

“You see this equipment on the airfield blowing snow or moving,” airside Maintenance Manager Albert Gino said. “These guys don’t only operate the equipment - they fix it and they maintain it. So if we’re in the middle of a storm and something breaks, we may be pulling one of these gentlemen out of another piece of equipment to come back here and work on something.”

Drivers behind the wheel of the plows and brooms need to watch out for each other, especially when visibility is at a minimum.

“Believe it or not, the wind is probably the worst thing,” mechanic Johnathan Fritz said. “Because you’re plowing or brooming in two different directions, and usually if you’re going west, you’re all right, but driving east, a lot of times the snow is falling back. You could have heated windshields, the wiper blades, but the visibility gets so bad, sometimes we actually stop.”

In the heart of the nor’easter, Fritz took notice of the mileage in the broom before he started.

“When I was done, I drove over 100 miles that night and never left the fence line of the airport,” he said.

The preparedness and dedication of the team can be attributed to the late Wilfred ‘Wiley’ Post, the former manager of LVIA and a nationally recognized aviation pioneer. He was proud not only of the physical growth of the airport back in the 1960s, but that it was considered one of the safest airports in the world. When other airports had to close because of snow, LVIA remained open.

In 1966, Post and a group of other airport managers in the Northeast began the International Aviation Snow Symposium. He served as chairman from its inception, and for its first 20 years, the symposium was held at LVIA before it moved to Buffalo. Every year, the symposium provides the most comprehensive winter operations training in the industry. That training is reflected today in the priorities and techniques showcased through the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority.

“It takes a real commitment at times, because, you know, yes, our guys are being paid,” Warner said. “But when you’re out there and you have to focus being in that equipment, it does take a lot of focus. It’s really not about being paid. They’re really committed to keeping the airport open.”

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