With the addition of Harry Wilson, P.E., Brett Wiseman, P.E., and Gary Pitzing, PLS, Sain Associates now offers design, planning, and surveying services at airports. These three employees have approximately 60 years of combined airport experience. They have worked with the Alabama Department of Transportation Aeronautics Bureau and the FAA Airports District Office in Jackson, Mississippi, assisting their clients in securing funds for airport development projects. Projects included runway extensions, runway marking and striping, NAVAID relocations, Automated Weather Observation Station replacement, taxiway construction, apron construction, utility installations, land acquisitions, environmental assessments (CATX), airfield lighting and signage upgrades, T-Hangars, Corporate Hangars, and land surveying and mapping.
Based on qualifications, Sain Associates was selected to provide airport planning and design services for the Huntsville Executive Airport over the next five-year period. We have assisted with relocating two Precision Approach Path Indicators, the acquisition of two parcels of property, and the M-5 Hangar (100,000 square feet) for Yulista Corporation. Yulista employs approximately 350 people at the airport performing contracts for the US Military on Blackhawk Helicopters, Ospreys, and other rotary-wing aircraft.
In 2021, we will design the Runway Safety Area embankment for runway 18, the north approach to the aircraft’s runway system. The embankment construction will raise the safety area’s grade approximately seven feet at the lowest point, which is about one thousand feet from the end of the runway. The safety area floods from the waters of Briar Fork Creek during high-intensity rain, which creates a safety hazard for aircraft either arriving or departing. We will coordinate with the FAA to perform a short-form CATX for environmental clearance and with FEMA to relocate the floodplain and floodway during this project. The FAA is planning to provide the funding to construct this project beginning in mid-2021.