Having had to re-stripe the lines in my coffee shop's parking lot myself, I know well what it means to use 3000 gallons of paint. I'm sure, however, the fine folk at the Port of Seattle did not paint by moving two pieces of guide cardboard a little at a time!
From Seattle PI:
Sea-Tac runway gets paint job
Workers inspect the concrete on runway 34R/16L at Sea-Tac Airport on Sept. 21, 2009 (Photo/Seattlepi.com, Joshua Trujillo)
The main runway at
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport got one very visible step closer to reopening Monday, as workers painted "34R" in 60-foot numbers and letters at its south end.
Here's a
photo gallery from a press tour Monday.
The north end's "16L" designator marking is scheduled for completion Tuesday, with the runway set to open 12:01 a.m. Sunday for day-time, good weather use. The Federal Aviation Administration plans to conduct flight checks starting Sunday and clear the runway for full use by the end of next week.
In all, striping the 11,900-foot runway will take more than 3,000 gallons of paint. The designators refer to the compass location of the runways and their alignment with the two other runways (right, center and left).
Sea-Tac's first runway was built in 1944 and extended several times over the ensuing decades, with its last asphalt overlay in 1992.
Rebuilding the runway became possible after the airport opened its
third runway last year.
The new 20-inch thick runway and adjoining taxiways required 120,000 cubic yards of concrete. The concrete from the original 1944 runway was crushed it into gravel used as the 12-inch sub base for the new runway, below a 4-inch asphalt base.