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Tighter than Tight

A builders level is used to check the outslope of the runway.

The pointed tip of this rover was replaced with a cup to enusre a more accurate reading to meet the demands of a one-eigth inch spec.

Steve Martin (left) and Tim Houchens work together to install the hardware for the Topcon mmGPS system.

The Wirtgen at work milling a fillet section of runway 18L 36R.

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By Asphalt Contractor Staff

As the work of milling runway 18L 36R at the Huntsville International Airport droned on, various workers offered various interpretations of the spec they had to meet.

"One-eighth of an inch." That's the correct number.

"The thickness of a nickel." Grab your vernier calipers and your pocket change and you'll see that an eighth-inch is very close to the thickness of two nickels.

"Two-hundredths of an inch." No, an eighth of an inch is 6.25 times bigger than that.

"Two-hundredths of a foot." That would be 0.24 inches, not quite twice the actual spec of one-eighth (0.125) inch.

One thing on which everyone agreed: the spec was tight. Brian Self, the take-off coordinator for Wiregrass Construction Company, the firm doing the milling and repaving, made the number even more daunting.

"It's not plus-or-minus an eighth," he explains. "The way we have it configured is we're milling to a depth of three inches, plus an eighth, minus zero."

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