As part of their Senior Design Capstone course, Civil & Environmental Engineering students developed a plan to close a section of road to accommodate local airport clearances by designing a new section of road to reroute traffic.  

Manchester Municipal Airport is located at 1561 Early Stagecoach Road.  Runway 18/36 runs perpendicular to Early Stagecoach Road, and as such, Runway 36 has a displaced threshold of 305’ due to obstacle clearance requirements. Closing the portion of Early Stagecoach Road adjacent to the runway area would assist in reducing the displacement threshold.

The project entailed determining the best location for rerouting Early Stagecoach Road, while providing access to the airport and adjacent farmland. The airport, west of the city, lays north of Early Stagecoach as it runs to the northwest. Rerouting the road would allow the city to decrease the current displacement threshold of 305’ for runway 36.

As part of this project, the team created a site plan, which analyzed the vertical and horizontal alignment, the road cross section, the corridor surface, and material volume required to determine the existing and final grading cut or fill requirements. This analysis also accounted for stormwater drainage management and runoff.  Final cost estimates are also provided in the final report.