Tyndall airfield evaluation team tests Shaw's runway Published March 26, 2010 By Airman 1st Class Daniel Phelps 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- An airfield pavement evaluation team from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. arrived here March 9 to conduct an evaluation on the entire airfield. The evaluations, which took place from March 9 to 23, were conducted to determine the structural integrity of the pavement and the surface's potential to contribute to an aircraft skidding or hydroplaning incident, said Robert Jones, 20th Civil Engineer Squadron engineer. These tests included visually inspecting all airfield pavements, extracting pavement cores, and measuring pavement deflections over the entire airfield with a heavy-weight deflectometer, said Jones. Shaw's last evaluation was July 2002. "The tests can tell wing leadership what kind of missions they can actually do," said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Morgan, airfield evaluation team member from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. "There's a certain number of passes and gross loads for the aircraft that come in. If the pavement cannot hold those loads, you are not going to be able to bring in supplies with certain aircraft, and they might have to go somewhere else." Ninety-five percent of Shaw's pavements were found to be in good condition and the runway friction testing exceeded established standards, said Jones.