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The entire span of runway pavement surface had been saw cut with 3/8-inch deep grooves at one inch on center. A special characteristic of the Carbon Plex H-25 is its rapid 10:1 (static/shear thin) viscosity rise after being pumped and sprayed. In less than one second from hitting the pavement the static viscosity is nearly restored, assuring a significant resistance to puddling in the grooves. On this foggy night it was performing as designed, with virtually no uneven film thickness between the pavement surface and the groove bottoms.

At this point other good things began to happen. Before the Bearcat returned painting its second 12-foot swath, a black hue began to show in the over-spray zone. The Carbon Plex emulsion was breaking! Even with the atmospheric vapor content above the surface being at or near saturation the exothermic reaction designed into the "cold cure" version of H-25 was kicking in and forcing the micronized emulsion water component to volatize.

The JWA engineers granted that the installation could proceed. By 1:45 a.m., the 640,000-square-foot project was coated and curing at a predictable pace. At about 3:30 a.m. the entire job was drivable, even though the fog had actually worsened at times.

The first critical stage of the job had been accomplished.

The coating was installed and cured in the allotted time and under the conditions prescribed. Curing had progressed to a film sufficiently tough to resist tire displacement as well as becoming water fast with no chance of re-emulsification.

Stage Two came the next morning when heavy jet traffic began moving over the fresh, shiny black coating. Jets rolled over the 3-foot-wide, white thermoplastic stripe defining the runway, without one hint of any tracking.