The price tag on this one is enough to choke a horse ... $17 million??!! What is it about this airport that made the price so high, any ideas? I think our $6 million may not be adequate if there are not some really big differences that are driving up the cost of this one. Their runway is 150 feet wide, so their EMAS should be 170 feet wide (whereas ours would be 120 feet wide) ... anything else? Joel Downtown airport boasts a new runway safety system By ROBERT A. CRONKLETON The Kansas City Star JOHN SLEEZER Concrete blocks waited this week to be installed at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport. The blocks would stop planes that might overshoot the end of the runway. * Photos | Photos | New safety features at Wheeler Downtown Airport Melissa Cooper walked this week across the crushable concrete blocks that make up a new runway safety system at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport. "It feels bouncy," said Cooper, assistant airport manager. "Kind of like walking on a dock." But that will not be the experience of airplanes should they stray onto the $17 million safety feature called EMAS - engineered materials arresting system. Instead, the planes' weight will crush the cellular cement blocks, stopping the planes with minimal damage if they overshoot the end of the runway. Crews have been installing the system, which consists of a bed of 2,982 blocks - each 4 feet by 4 feet - on the south end of Runway 1-19, Cooper said. The blocks gradually increase in height, starting at 8 inches and then increasing to 20 inches, she said. Installation is expected to be completed by next week. Some grading, concrete and other finish work will still need to be completed. Construction on a second bed for the north end of the runway is expected to begin next spring. "The system consists of special blocks that were designed to arrest an airplane traveling up to 70 knots to keep the airplane from departing the runway," said Mike Barnes, a construction site supervisor with Esco-Za, a Zodiac Aerospace company out of Logan Township, N.J. The blocks collapse to absorb the energy of the airplane while minimizing the damage to the aircraft and allowing the aircraft to be slowed without hurting passengers, he said. "It actually acts like quicksand," Barnes said. The deeper the plane travels into the bed, the more energy is absorbed. The airport began studying alternatives 10 years ago, said airport manager Michael Roper. "We had looked at extending the runway into the Missouri River floodplain," Roper said. "But that was going to require about 90,000 cubic yards of fill. After Hurricane Katrina, the levee districts in Kansas City were a little concerned what that could do during a flood stage." Federal funds are paying for about 90 percent of project, he said. In his six years at the airport, Roper said, there have been two overruns at the south end of the runway. During his tenure, there have not been any at the north end. Such a system is not needed at Kansas City International Airport because there is plenty of land at the ends of the runways. To reach Robert A. Cronkleton, call 816-234-4261 or send e-mail to bcronkleton@kcstar.com. Posted on Fri, Nov. 06, 2009 10:20 PM Joel Jenkinson Director, Addison Airport main: (972) 392-4850 fax: (972) 788-9334