CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Douglas International Airport and UNC Charlotte today unveiled a first-in-the-nation, real-time sensor monitoring system that will be installed as part of the airport’s billion-dollar runway opening next year.
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CLT and UNC Charlotte already have a formal relationship that combines academics and analyzing airport operations, known as the UNC Charlotte AIR (Aviation and Innovation) Research Institute.
Jack Christine, the airport’s chief infrastructure officer, said Monday that discussions began eight or nine years ago with the Federal Aviation Administration about what types of research are needed and how CLT might be able to help.
With planning for a fourth parallel runway in the works, the plan for sensors embedded in the pavement to record changing conditions, maintenance needs, and other information began to take shape.
On Monday morning at the airport’s overlook, Christine and John Daniels, UNC Charlotte’s vice chancellor of research, spoke to reporters and attendees, including university Chancellor Sharon Gaber, about the benefits of the research alliance.
As they spoke, construction crews could be seen behind them, continuing to build what will be a 10,000-foot-long runway, with a width of 150 feet and a depth of 18 inches. It’s scheduled to open in September 2027, bringing more available space for takeoffs and landings and, in the process, reducing delays while improving safety.
The monitoring project calls for 2,000 sensors to be embedded at the north end of the new runway.
Each sensor costs $13,000 and is about the size of a cell phone, including supporting equipment to allow for monitoring and accessing the collected data. The installation will cost $6.5 million. CLT said the funding includes a $2 million grant from the FAA’s Airport Concrete Pavement Technology Program, $1 million from UNC Charlotte and the balance from the airport.
“We all get benefit from the runway, from the sensor program itself,” Christine said. “That real-time data we’re going to get on things like temperature and moisture and things like that, we’ll use in the everyday operation.”
Read the full story on CBJ’s website here.