What tarmac is used on runways?

Unfortunately, tarmac is easily damaged by gasoline and diesel fuel, so much of the tar in tarmac today has been replaced with a more resistant material called bitumen, thus creating “bitmac.” Though, after more than one hundred years of calling airport runways “tarmacs,” the name has stuck, tar or no tar.



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Flexible Pavement - A runway, taxiway, or ramp that is surfaced with a mixture of asphaltic materials (asphalt and aggregate) of from 3 to 5 inches (8 to 13 centimeters) or more in thickness.

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Adding tar to macadam makes the surface waterproof as well. Since airplanes must take off and land in all sorts of weather, airport runways are often paved with tarmacadam, as are public roads and highways.

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Typical narrow body runways usually have 11 to 13 inches (28 to 33 centimeters) of concrete thickness, and runways that serve wide body aircraft usually have 17 to 20 inches (43 to 51 centimeters) of concrete thickness.

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Widely used in a variety of concrete applications, from roads to bridges to buildings, reinforcing steel bar (rebar) is used to enhance the tensile strength of the surrounding concrete in applications such as runways and aprons.

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The chart notes that if a Boeing 747-400 had an operational landing weight of 475,000 lbs (215,456 kg) and wanted to land at a runway located at sea level, then the suggested runway length would be a little over 1,500 meters, or roughly 5,000 feet.

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Shigatse Peace Airport, China (runway length: 5,000m) Shigatse Peace Airport (RKZ), a dual-use military and civilian airport in Shigatse, Tibet hosts the longest runway in the world. The new runway (09/27) stretches 5,000m (16,404 ft) long with a 60-meter asphalt overrun at each end.

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