Building $1 Billion of Runway at CLT International Airport
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Disclaimer-this video is NOT produced by CLT.
Welcome to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, one of the busiest in the United States. And like any other busy airport, it's growing FAST.
And fast growth doesn't only mean new airport terminals-it means entirely new runways, like CLT's fourth parallel runway project.
A multi-year $1B undertaking, the fourth parallel runway will eventually allow air traffic to flow in and out of the airport more efficiently.
To build it, there's A LOT of earthmoving involved. And this is where ES Wagner comes into play. Moving dirt since 1947, they also moved the dirt for CLT's third parallel runway in the early 2000s. Now they're back, and we enjoyed checking out the action.
To learn more about ES Wagner, check out their website here: www.eswagner.com/
Glad you covered the dirt here is temperamental. Most contractors come into town guns a blazing and leave with tail between the legs. Silts and mica make soils light and moisture sensitive. Holland belt loader I saw in person most impressive production I’ve ever seen!
yeah Wagner's been around the block with this stuff so they have no issue
Do they hire violent convicted felons serious question
Those ejector trucks were something new to see. Nice job.
They are called *Belly dumpers* what's with calling things whatever you feel like ?
Great video. Before I retired, I worked for a contractor that did a lot of work at Chicago's O'Hare field. You video brought back memories.
thanks for watching!
Just got back from Atlanta and wow that airport is huge! Seeing all of this construction going on is awesome! If I was a young person looking for a job that doesn't require a college degree I would learn heavy equipment operations! Also if I was getting a degree I would get a civil engineering degree! Love your show you are going to be busy the next couple of years!
thank you!
What out for those Keyboard Warriors. They are all Experts behind the key board. lol
Just flew in and out of Charlotte last month. That dirt moving operation is huge.
Massive construction effort! BTW- my Grandfather (Almando Giovanni Luigi Gallucci) and McCourt Construction Company, with whom he worked +45yrs from 1928-ish through the 1970's building the many early roads of Boston Massachusetts (he was always commenting "Wherever Paul Revere road his horse, we built a road. haha!), and constructed runways at Boston's Logan Airport beginning sometime in the 40's(?) (McCourt is still operational and in the business of building airport runways to this day), his crew also erected the "seawall" at Logan Airport, as an effort to prevent ocean water from entering the area... maybe, not sure? (in the 70's a landing plane crashed into that wall because of fog, killing all onboard), and the most notable construction work I am so very proud of my Grandfather is, in the early 1950's he laid the iconic red-bricks for Boston's "Freedom Trail", a sidewalk "trail" leading pedestrians through streets of Historic Boston pinpointing all the famous locations (Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, Faneuil Hall, the site of the Boston Massacre, etc), he was extremely honored to have been responsible for that project, and the task of keeping the original stones marking the site of the Boston Massacre, safe and in order when they ripped apart the street for paving and then replacing them exactly as were found. He died in 1983 at the age of 74 as a hard working man who loved building roads and most especially, airport runways. He was a wonderful simple family man from Italy, and perfect Grandfather (who loved to tease his grandchildren ha!). Well, that's my longwinded 2-cents about runways.
amazing thank you for the information
Another great video, Aaron. Thank you for your hard work in bringing these videos. Always great content and clear videos. Thanks for sharing and have a great weekend.
Great info and overview of the project. Night or day, there is never a dull moment building airside civil works.
thanks for watching
@@AaronWitt Glad to follow, your content is very informative. Many people don't know what goes into building the infrastructure you highlight so well.
The never ending CLT construction
Just like Philly, never ending construction.
I didn’t even see the equipment until I noticed the flags
Great video AAron. Being in NC myself I especially enjoyed it.
Super cool video! It's always neat seeing the behind the scenses of theses mega earthworks projects.
thanks for watching
As a pilot I'm somewhat dreading the extra runway. CLT is one of my most hated airports that I try to avoid like the plague and frankly they need to bulldoze the current terminals and start over, it's the most overcrowded airport, maybe not by numbers of passengers per year compared to others on paper but it really -feels- like it. Throwing more planes into the mix will only make things worse. They should've finished any long-term future master-planned terminal expansions before even bothering with the runways, but I'm just a glorified bus driver so what do I know.
I literally learned the airport code for Charlotte this week, so this is relevant to my interests!
Carolina Clay is really something. I can't even imagine how much cleaning goes on at the airport because of the amount of dust that get's kicked up.
Cat 773 on the taxi way!!! A load of shot rock gonna dump today!!!
Glad you clarified the reason for the flags, I thought the contractor was from Tennessee 😂
go vols
Operator input. They are shaking the bucket just to help it a little. You'll start getting build up if the dirt is a little moist so it just helps shake that off.
Great video ❤
Pretty sick dude, I fly for American. Nice to see the other side of everything
right on!! maybe I've been on one of your flights
Outstanding Video. ! Keep Up the Great Work. 🇺🇲
My home airport. Thanks for the content
thanks for watching
Ya thats definitely some tricky soil. Just watching that conpactor kinda float along the soil really shows it
Great vid as always plenty constraints to deal with.
"yep ! that's a plane" 9:44 🤣
I like the little Purina Dog Food flags on all the tractors 🐶
Nice to see Son-of-Euclid on your job.
Exactly what I thought too when they were portraying the ejection trailers 👍👍 Euclid was one of the great pioneer’s in earthmoving equipment my father ran their TS-24 scrapers and dozers (can’t remember the models) build golf courses across the Midwest in the 1950’s-60’s great machines and simple to repair.👍👍
Shoooow 👏👏👏👏👏🤗🙋♂️
Greetings from Finland, I recently found your channel, very interesting content. Iam big construction equipment fan so nice to see those massive machines.
Great Vid 👍👍👍👍💪🏻💪🏻
literary my favourite channel
thank you
Nice work yall
Great content and a very interesting project overall, the paperwork for crossing an active runway would have cleared a rainforest!
I used to live on S. Tryon, what a nightmare!!! My apartment was right under a runway. Planes would land and take off at 2,3,4,5 am!!! They used to hault flights after midnight. No more! It's none stop. And ever since Covid they were flying military planes in and out of CLT. You could hear them coming 6 miles away. They were flying something in and out in the middle of the night. I still have PTSD from the planes. Never again!
Let’s hope they use some funds to improve the terminals and baggage claims which are a complete dump
Just flew out of there two weeks ago. My gosh they seem to have made it worse which is saying something as it was bad before.
@@PirateNation2005 doesn’t surprise me at all
The terminal needs to be enlarged. Too many gates, not enough room. They should’ve just built a whole new airport.
That would be fun job to be on. I love operating heavy equipment. And i love aviation
Does Aaron remind anyone else of Howard Cosell or William Shatner as Capt. Kirk: "He...is....going....to.....go.....all....the....way" or "Mr. Spock.....we...have...to...do...some...thing....about...these...Romulans" His cadence really adds it's own quality to these cool videos
Aaron You are a great presenter. You talk slow and precise. You have a nice style on your presentation. Well done. Some presenter talk 100 miles an hour, total turn off. Keep up with the great videos, saw many of them. Keep em coming. Don't change your style.
thank you!
Great video... Wish it was a bit longer though
RG LaTournou would like those wheels wagons.
Hey you ever cover highway work? In idaho we're doing a pretty good sized hwy expansion. My company has been running between 130-150 road going trucks a day. It's a mix of side/belly dumps. Truck an pups, super dumps. Heard our peak recently was about 18,000 tons a day over the interstate.
man that's awesome
We have red clay here in Virginia as well.
very interesting, but if you haven't worked around earth moving equipment it isn't the same, it's been 45 years for me and i can still smell it when i watch.
Brilliant video really enjoying watching it. How do the plane see the construction equipment at night?
7:50 and don't call me Shirley...
Thank you for showing this HUGE dirt moving more runways. 😊on a big USA airport. It just shows how much people use air travel today and how airports need to expand runways 😊 just a question is the big rock native to the airport gound, or was it brought in. Just asking with the soil in one part was big ROCK there also. Its amazing to have them blast so close to active runways 😊 and that the guy running the backhow with sweeper so so important 😊 to think of the walks they do on aircraft carriers that a crew walks the deck looking for any object that might get in fighter jets or cause problems
Is there a ( MAT) of some kind at runway crossing under where the big dumps cross ?
Again, just what I thought I saw on the runway. You are amazing at all the huge, huge
Projects you go to and show all of us watchers that we might NEVER see and to think of the heavy equipment this company must get on job sight to do this huge project. Like you pointing out, you yourself have never SEEN those special made scraper designs
They need to keep big Rome offset disc on it and help keep it workable. I'm from NC and have worked with red dirt all my life in one way or the other.
I got a job at my cities airport and they re building one of our runways it's a pretty crazy project
Going forward, Aaron and Buildwitt, please try and balance the music with the talking. I'm having to actually consciously screen out the music to hear Aaron talk in the beginning. Thanks.
we are really trying -- still trying to figure it out
It's not dirt, it's soil! 😂
Ill be making repairs to a rock drill out there on Monday
2:06 american a330 🤌
9:50 thanks for pointing that out. I thought it was a 777. 😁
I connected at Charlotte last year… and I’m ok with not going back lol. I know they were doing construction but it was a mess
Impressive operation. I wonder how much their bid was .
Do you think the ejects will leave indentations across the tarmac of the most commonly traveled path?
no they actually have pretty low ground pressure
You know NeloTear used them years ago on a road project in Raleigh.
how does the planes see the FLAGS on the machines at night
I like to see excavator ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
You should go to rdu where they are building a new runway
I saw that -- another big one
@AaronWitt when were you there? I work nearby the airport. WOW that one job sweeping back and forth all day has to be boring but so important nonetheless.
we were there in December! But the project will be going for a long time
Dang would have bought you lunch😂
The Kress 200CIII
Coal Hauler would be a way more efficient truck to move that overburden than those Cat artics but what would I know Im just a coal mine electrician and heavy equipment operator on the pipelines
Did they say why they were running those custom made ejector trucks? I've loaded scrapers with excavators plenty of times and i'm just trying to figure out the advantage that those trucks would give you?
far more volume
Have you been or plan to go to the new Microsoft data center going up in Racine WI? That site is becoming massive.
CLiT International
So no one is going to acknowledge this is not a Billion dollar project?
what is the general ROI on a project like this for the contractor?
2:40 “Charloss Douglette”
Sorry, Aaron
Around 17:30 when the 349 jiggles the bucket back and forth to offload, is that the operator's input or just natural harmonics?
operator input - trying to carefully get everything into the truck and not on the side boards. Have to keep it clean for the taxiway crossing
Im surprised that there was no water for dust suppression.
intentionally -- they didn't want to be tracking mud across the taxiway
ya'll have a dead pixel top left on one of the cams visible 18:44
i know some of the bright bits are stars, stars don't move with the camera
dang it
love the videos super entertaining, wanted to support buy ordering some super awesome stickers but its $50 shipping to canada :((( Keep up thesweet videos
hey this is my airport
It's kinda ironic that on an airport it is forbidden that you run on the runway. 😁😜
Funk all that, renovate the Custom/Border checkpoint, that is such an embarrassing Welcoming to CLT
More than 3 international flights arrive at the same time and the lines/processing time turns into a CF
People say that Charlotte airport is the worst !
Why no top roller on the undercarriage of that gps D8?
Less wear points. This silty sandy souls real hard on UC so they just remove it
thank you
Does anyone have any knowledge of what the specific concrete mix and thickness the airport runway will be pretty sure it’s completely different from the average Highway has due to the weight and landing impact of the aircraft?
Apparently that Blackhawk helicopter in DC just needed a flag
keep building an vids
$20 million for the runway and $980 million in grift.😅
That’s what it takes to get things done. Real world.
Yup and thank the radical left and their eco terrorist groups lawyers and life long bureaucrats getting rich off the backs of those who build the infrastructure and the country as a whole.
Yup and thank the radical left and their eco terrorist groups lawyers and life long bureaucrats getting rich off the backs of those who build the infrastructure and the country as a whole.
Thank the life long bureaucrats who build nothing design nothing nor produce nothing they just feed at the trough of your hard work.
USAID must be behind it...
Ho Hum...
Airport debris = F.O.D. (foreign object debris)
That d9t needs a undercarriage rebuild haha so worn out
why do they dont recycle the material for other purpose. Aspecially the rock crush it and use it the fundation or drainage.
I don’t think those ejector trucks would work here in the UK to many wheels that need maintaining against their load carrying capacity.🚜🚜
am I too early?
I get that you want a runway build good and solid. But a billion? Come on, man.
it's including all the surrounding infrastructure as well
@ Still don’t cost no billion dollars. I’m guessing at least a full third of that price tag is graft.
is this why my property taxes went up again?
no -- most airports sustain themselves
Umm not possible to be 4.7 billion for that airports traffic bud... thats global I believe
yep I was wrong :(
You make your boyfriend so proud with these videos ❤
How in the world can a runway cost 1 billion dollars? What a joke.
It's amazing that male pilots are able to find the airport 😂
Love your videos and what you do. So this rant has nothing to do with the awesome work y’all do. 1 Billion for a runway is exactly why DOGE was created. All and all clt got 3.5 Billion for improving the airport is almost theft of the taxpayers. Meck county schools are horrible and crime is rampant. Cost of living is so high now and most of the roads in clt are crap. As someone said before me someone is getting rich off this waste.
most of the money isn't even federal - most airports are self-sustaining via the fees for airlines / parking / etc. They actually work extremely well financially compared to most other US infrastructure
The toll lane and light rail is where your disdain should be directed
@@AaronWitt Airports are one of those pieces of infrastructure that no one thinks about and are actually a goldmine for their controlling interests.
@@AaronWittexactly and that’s why the government needs to be removed from the infrastructure construction equation.
Old technology was so much better. Now is only toys and stupid time wasting
Good to know all our tax dollars are going to CLT and David Tepper's (one of the richest owners) Carolina Panthers. At least CLT is owned by the city? David Tepper is getting more and providing Charlotte less! Bad deals. Who's paying the city council??
Why. Do. You. Speak. With. A. Period. After. Every. Word? So annoying.
The Ultimate Grift.
1st!
Please try to disable automatic transcription. The AI female voice sounds bloody awful.
I have no idea what you're talking about but I'll look haha
@@AaronWitt put it in german, it started the video in german for me.
That's user error. You have to turn it off yourself🙄
@@aerialbugsmasher I have turned it off but i didn't want it in the first place