The key elements the Airport Authority provides to maintain a safe environment for aircraft operations during winter weather are 24-hour airfield condition monitoring, pretreating surfaces, and ultimately clearing snow and ice from taxiways and runways. Airport Authority personnel conduct exercises and perform training months in advance to ensure that all goes smoothly during the winter season. Equipment, such as snowplows, rotary brooms and blowers, and coordination with our business partners and the FAA air traffic controllers, allows the crews to continuously clear runways and taxiways during inclement weather.
Louisville International
The Airport Authority utilizes 29 primary pieces of equipment to clean 15 miles of taxiways/runways, which range from 150 feet wide to 75 feet wide, and 10 miles of airfield roadway. The following is an inventory of our snow and ice removal equipment used on runways, taxiways and aircraft ramps.
• (5) all-wheel drive high-speed snowplows with 22 foot wide plow blades
• (5) all-wheel drive high-speed 22 foot wide snow brooms
• (3) snow blowers
• (2) 4,000 gallon de-icer trucks
• (2) dump trucks with 12 foot wide plow blades
• (4) pickup trucks with plow blades
• (3) skid loaders
• (5) wheeled loaders with 20 foot wide box plows
Various other equipment, such as dump trucks, pickups and hand tools, are utilized for snow removal of publicly accessible vehicle parking lots, roadways and sidewalks.
Bowman Field
Clearing the runways is the priority for Bowman Field, too. Crews simultaneously focus on clearing the airfield while assuring the ramps, walkways, roadways and parking lots are available for use. Bowman’s crews use two 22-foot snowplows, two 22-foot snow brooms and one 4,000 gallon de-icer truck. Also, one tandem dump truck and two pickup trucks are equipped with snow blades.
