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    Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) recently provided Sightline's on-site training workshop for about 30 of its Maintenance, Operations, and Inspection personnel. From specification development to quality control during application, they learned what to do, what not to do, and how to sustain its massive marking system. It became the fourth of the "Top 5" airports in the U.S. to have followed-up an Airfield Marking Audit with Training for its personnel. While we believe every airport is different, I can't help but notice some direct correlations among the marking programs at ATL, LAX, DFW, and DEN:

The Way It Had Always Been Done

    The "strategy" behind maintaining these marking systems in the past was to paint as much as possible regardless of need when time/weather allowed. This blanket strategy stemmed from the inability to define when a marking was broken, largely due to the lack of objective criteria for marking effectiveness. Painting everything covered up the good and the bad; often right before a looming FAA Part 139 safety inspection. Is this sounding familiar?

Thick and Tired

    Painting over old paint without first preparing the surface and/or removing the paint leads to really thick lines and adhesion issues. Among the Top 5 airports, DFW owned the thickest marking, weighing in at 487.5 mils... That's equivalent to 50 consecutive paint applications; everything is thicker in Texas! However, during Airfield Marking Audits, we identified significant paint build-up issues at each large airport. Since the results of the audits, DEN and LAX have undergone large-scale removal operations, and ATL and DFW are in the process of remediation. In all cases, the huge expense associated with removing thick markings is the result of poor maintenance practices: they painted themselves into a corner.

Sustainability

    Needless to say, every airport wants to avoid having to go through this lengthy, costly process in the future. With our help, ATL, LAX, DFW, and DEN are now making educated decisions toward achieving sustainable marking systems. Based on our recommendations, three of these airports have purchased their own ultrahigh waterblasters to satisfy surface preparation and paint/rubber removal requirements. One has already conducted a follow-up audit to establish a new standard to act as a baseline for marking performance. Although these four airports have different approaches, they share a common goal: adopting a sustainable strategy for future maintenance of the marking system.

    Sustainability is an ongoing process, not an event. Once the markings are identified and considered more than "incidental", a program towards sustainable maintenance can begin to take shape. Your paint problems have Sightline solutions: Start here.

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