About the Project

North Dakota’s aviation system was heavily impacted by investments in oil recovery starting in 2008. In some areas of the state, traffic levels increased by more than 70 percent annually, and most airports saw much larger and heavier aircraft in their operations. Together, these factors impacted the system’s condition and future needs and presented a serious challenge for state officials to manage their airport pavement infrastructure. To proactively address this need, in 2011, North Dakota Aeronautics Commission (NDAC) selected APTech, as a subconsultant, to update and enhance North Dakota's state airport pavement management system (APMS). NDAC reselected APTech in 2015, 2018, 2021, and most recently in 2023 to continue to update and improve their APMS.

APTech’s role in these projects included updating pavement inventory data, construction history information, and project mapping. APTech also collected pavement condition index (PCI) inspection data, completed a variety of condition analyses, and developed a five-year pavement needs analysis. During previous updates, APTech also performed non-destructive testing using our falling weight deflectometer (FWD) and calculated Pavement Classification Numbers (PCNs).

In 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) updated pavement strength reporting guidance to align with those of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), causing reporting requirements to transition from the previous PCNs to Pavement Classification Ratings (PCRs). As part of the most recent update, APTech is calculating PCRs for runways servicing aircraft over 12,500 lbs at eight commercial service airports to comply with the updated pavement strength reporting guidelines.

As part of these updates, APTech has assisted in outreach activities related to the APMS in the form of focus group meetings and presentations at North Dakota’s annual airport conference. APTech also developed—and subsequently updated—its web-based interactive pavement management tool, IDEA, to enable the NDAC, airport managers, and other stakeholders to view project results online and modernize the way project information and results were disseminated.