Pulice, a Flatiron Dragados company, is set to complete the second and final phase of the Mesa Gateway Airport Authority's (MGAA) $44 million Runway 12R-30L Reconstruction project in September.
The endeavor has demolished and reconstructed the 10,401-ft.-long and 220-ft.-wide runway (with 150-ft.-wide and 35-ft.-wide asphalt shoulders on each side) built in 1958 as part of the former Williams Air Force Base.
The $19 million first phase, which began in September 2024 and was completed in June 2025, saw Pulice crews rebuild the southern half of the runway, create an asphalt transition to the northern half and remove old infrastructure.
The second phase began in October 2025 and is slated for completion later this year.
Pulice officials said both phases will be completed ahead of schedule and below budget.
This is an important project for the airport.
"Runway 12R/30L is the longest runway at Mesa Gateway Airport," Ryan Smith, an airport spokesman, told Construction Equipment Guide. "It serves as the primary commercial use runway and is the most frequently used. This runway is critical to airport operations. It is also the closest runway to the passenger terminal complex.
"The runway has reached the end of its useful life. Portions of it had been previously reconstructed. Approximately 1,000 feet of the runway threshold was reconstructed in 2015 and approximately 3,000 feet of the threshold was reconstructed in 2014. The area between the two reconstructed areas continually needed localized repairs due to the deteriorating concrete."
The project was designed in 2023. Dibble Engineering designed the runway portion, while Kimley-Horn & Associates designed Taxiway B2.
The major elements of Phase Two include reconstructing the northern half of the runway (4,500 ft.), placing new runway markings, installing new runway lighting, completing infield grading and drainage improvements and working on Taxiway B2.
For the runway, 82,000 sq. yds. of new Portland Cement concrete pavement (PCCP) will be placed, along with 40,000 sq. yds. of new asphalt concrete for the shoulder pavement.
Demolishing a runway is a challenge in the best of circumstances and can be time consuming depending on the strength of the concrete.
Last fall, Pulice highlighted the dramatic increase in the runway's removal process via the use of a remote-controlled T8600 Badger Breaker, with its "guillotine-style" hardened steel breaker. Wisconsin-based Antigo Construction, the demolition subcontractor, crushed roughly 75,000 sq. yds.
"[The machine allows us] to break through 16 inches of PCCP," according to the company's website. "Antigo is a leader in concrete breaking and rubblizing, and this powerful machine enables us to break down existing pavement efficiently. Beyond raw power, the Badger Breaker offers a sustainability edge — it produces less dust than traditional methods, improving air quality and site safety."
The T8600 has traversed the runway, breaking the thick PCCP surface. The working end of the machine is the 2 in.-thick breaker, which has an 8-ft.-long surface area and weighs 12,000 lbs. The device has a breaking force of 16,000 lbs. and strikes two to three 1-ft. sections per minute.
The operator, who programs the drops sequencing, monitors the T8600 via a nearby truck. On this project, the Badger Breaker operated for an average of 10 hours per day.
Sujay More, Pulice's project engineer, told Construction Equipment Guide that he is impressed by the T8600's capabilities.
"It took seven days to rubblize the entire 72,000 sq. yds. of PCCP for Phase Two," he said.
"It's a pretty simple machine," Jeff Gergal, senior project manager, told Construction Equipment Guide. "It shattered about 16 to 17.5 inches of the existing runway."
The plan of attack for both phases was to shut down the runway and rubblize it, then pick up the debris with excavators and articulated dump trucks. Cat 352 and 335 excavators with breakers were used, along with Cat motor graders with Trimble GPS systems, which also were employed by the surveying teams. McNeil Brothers, a Pulice subsidiary, used a Leica GPS system.
"Especially with the runway, everything is within the hundreds of a foot," Gergal said. "It's a very tight tolerance, so each layer of the structural section had to be right to have the adequate thickness and right elevations."
The material intended for recycling was transported to Pulice's crushing site about 1.5 mi. away, which was shared with the concrete batch plant and the cement-treated base (CBT) plant.
"Nothing was hauled off site, which allowed us to speed up the whole operation instead of taking the material to a landfill," Gergal said. "We were able to haul a lot more material with the articulated trucks, meaning shorter cycle times for the whole operation, as well as being able to execute everything much faster. We stockpiled the material and crushed it so that it could be repurposed and more sustainable. We're making all the aggregates for the project -- nothing is going into a landfill."
A Kleemann MR130ZSI crusher was used in conjunction with a hydraulic breaker that took the larger pieces of rubble and cracked them into smaller pieces that could be loaded into the crusher's hopper.
Abe Sharaf, Pulice's equipment manager, described the crushing process to Construction Equipment Guide.
"We used it on other projects to make CTB," he said. "We knew making CTB was possible, but for the other varieties of aggregates, we had to fine-tune and angle the blow bars to meet the specifications."
Jack Matheny, a Pulice superintendent, oversaw the grading to "get it exactly to the right level because the structural section of the runway is 8 inches of lime-treated subgrade beneath 6 inches of CTB with 16-inch thick PCCP pavement," Gergal said. "The shoulders are made up of a lime-treated subgrade, aggregates above it, and 4 inches of asphalt. Once the lime goes in, we place the CTB."
The batch plant used for processing the CTB is a Rapid Mix 400C Volumetric plant with a four-bin feeder.
An Erie Strayer 12-cu.-yd. concrete batch plant is producing the PCCP, which does not include recycled materials.
The concrete is loaded into super 16 dump trucks and taken to the runway, where a GOMACO GP-4000 slipform paver spreads it.
"The PCCP is placed within 15 minutes of the time it was batched," Gergal said. "That is why it is so high quality. We worked out a mix in the last few projects that has given us the results we need. They want the concrete to have its 50-year useful lifespan."
Timing the concrete pours to avoid the extreme Arizona heat is a given.
"We will start in the early morning," Gergal said. "As we get into the summer months, they'll either pour at night or apply chilled water to the mix."
He noted that 3,000 cu. yds. of PCCP can be placed during a single shift -- 16 in. thick and 37.5 ft. wide.
Before the concrete could be placed on the runway, site prep crews installed the rebar. This consisted mainly of 20-ft. by 20 ft. saw-cut baskets, 8 in. deep.
"We set a basket with dowel bars that are about 20 inches long and 1.25 inches in diameter," Gergal said. "We promoted the crack where we wanted it to crack, so that the panels can expand and contract with the dowel bars, spaced every 18 inches, holding it in place."
This approach allows the concrete to handle temperatures as high as 125 degrees and as low as 10 degrees in the winter.
"Some of the taxiways are reinforced where there is a mat of rebar, usually along the edges," Gergal said. "It's usually along the edges and the smaller shapes."
"You want to promote the positive drainage, especially after a storm, where the water makes it into a storm drainage system, ending up in large retention basins," Gergal said.
Pulice has a full-time mechanic on site who is taking care of the equipment.
The nature of the project is putting the equipment to the test.
"Out on the runway, especially for the removal of the rubble, we're going through a lot of cutting edges and teeth, as you are working with an abrasive material," Sharaf said. "For the crusher, it's been normal wear and tear. A crusher can beat itself into pieces. We had to keep a strict schedule on maintenance, which included a thorough inspection once a week to inspect the crusher for all the wear items, belts and blow bars. The blow bars had to be either rotated or replaced weekly to ensure consistent product production."
Sharaf said he is pleased with the maintenance plan.
"We maintain all of the assets we have over here religiously," he said, "making sure everything is documented. We stay on top of all our maintenance -- we have capabilities here and in the shop for welding, hose/hydraulic issues and other regular repairs.
