Glacier airport finishes runway work after four weeks in Kalispell

"LHC ran a tight operation from start to finish. Coordinating that many people and that much equipment without missing a beat is no small thing," said Rob Ratkowski, GPIA director.

According to the airport, LHC, Inc. led a crew of more than 100 workers around the clock during four weekly construction windows. The airport reported the team logged more than 25,000 hours of labor and reopened the primary runway on or ahead of schedule each Friday morning.

Airport staff said months of planning helped limit weather delays. They reviewed more than 20 years of weather data before choosing July for paving work and reported that only four of the project’s 352 runway closure hours were lost to rain.

"Part of the reason this project was delivered on schedule is that the trends we saw in the weather data held true and that allowed our team to execute it exactly as designed," said Rob Ratkowski, GPIA director.

The airport said it worked with airline partners more than a year in advance. Commercial flights stopped during each closure window and resumed when the primary runway reopened, which helped retain about 60% of seat capacity during a peak tourism month.

The only full airfield closure lasted 48 hours while crews paved the runway intersection, the airport said.

"This project was an investment in our community. Every resident, business and visitor to the Flathead Valley benefits from this project. We're proud to have completed this work successfully and grateful to everyone who helped make it possible," said Ratkowski.

The airport said final work, including runway grooving and striping, will happen in September after a 30-day curing period. Officials said those last steps will not affect travelers.