Airport Of The Month – Winsted
New Turf Runway Has Innovative Design
March 1, 2022

Photo Courtesy Ron Roetzel Bolton & Menk
The city of Winsted installed new Medium Intensity Runway Lights (MIRLs) and replaced the below ground fueling system at the airport with a new above ground, self-service unit.
When runways were invented, they were mostly grass, at least in Minnesota.
A strip of land was graded and rolled until it was fairly smooth and flat, then grass was planted and a turf runway came into existence. Not much engineering was involved and the quality was pretty variable.
Winsted Municipal Airport had a turf runway, but the subsoil was rather poor and the turf surface would get rutted and have a "washboard" effect. The drainage needed some work and the lighting system became badly out of date. Not an ideal situation and one that required a lot of maintenance.
The city started l...
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