Remove, Restripe, Remarkable

by Allan Heydorn
Created: May 1, 2005

Proof is in the planning as Atlantic Construction Co. completes 48-hour runway job ahead of schedule.

"I was amazed at how smoothly everything went," Hatfield says. "We planned it out, organized the work, gave each crew its work orders, and everything went off just as we'd planned it…even faster."

Preparing for airport work

"Our crew did a great job," says Todd Hatfield, operations manager for Atlantic Construction. "Working on an airport is difficult because there are so many restrictions and regulations to follow and crews aren't used to most of them. Our crew did a great job throughout the project."

Among the regulations specific to this airport job were:

Badges. Special badges are required to gain access to the jobsite. Badges cost $115 each and contractors are fined for lost badges. Special driver badges with a photo ID require a background check, which can take as long as a month. To avoid that Hatfield himself served as the driver, transporting people to and from the site.

Boundaries. Each airport jobsite has specific boundaries the crew must stay within. Crew members who step outside of the boundaries can be fined $10,000 per occurrence, "and we couldn't have that," Hatfield says.

Airport security. Hatfield says if airport security (or anyone) comes near the jobsite and a crew member makes eye contact with them and doesn't see a badge, the contractor is required to notify security. Failure to notify security is another fineable violation. "So we told people just to not make eye contact with anyone other than our crew."

Required class. Attendance is required at a 2½-hour class that covers safety, what happens on the site, what individuals are responsible for on the site, plus a test they must pass to receive a contractor badge.

"We sent each person a letter and told them they were responsible for the badge, that they would have to pay for lost badges themselves, and they have to turn badges in at the end of the day. We made sure they knew what they could and couldn't do on the site," Hatfield says. "Then we had them sign it. We couldn't afford any fines or we wouldn't make any money on the job."