
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994                   TAG: 9401200081
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE AIRPORT LIKELY TO STAY CLOSED

Roanoke Regional Airport remained closed Wednesday, and officials don't hold out much hope that the icy conditions will improve enough to reopen today.

"This is unprecedented; we've never been shut down for this long, ' said Bob Johnson, chairman of the Airport Commission. "It's just so frustrating."

The airport closed around 5 p.m. Monday after sleet and freezing rain began to coat its two main runways. The winter storm shut airports across the Southeast, but all except for Roanoke were able to resume some operations by Tuesday afternoon.

"That doesn't surprise me," said Donato Cacciapaglia, who works for the National Weather Service in Roanoke. "We were definitely the hardest hit."

The Lynchburg airport was able to reopen Tuesday afternoon, Cacciapaglia said, because it wasn't as cold there Monday night after the ice stopped falling. The freezing temperatures caused the ice to form a tight bond with the runways at the Roanoke airport, irritating airport officials as much as travelers.

"It's kind of like wrestling with an octopus," Johnson said. "You get hold of one tentacle and then another comes at you."

Richard Keen, director of transportation at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, wasn't surprised either that the Roanoke airport was still closed.

"We haven't seen conditions like this in some time," he said. "We're open, but not running a normal schedule."

Smaller airports such as Roanoke's typically don't have the equipment or the manpower to keep runways clear during big storms, and "once you get behind it's hard to catch up," Keen said.

This is the first shutdown at Roanoke Regional Airport since the blizzard last March, when it closed for about 48 hours.

Unlike highway crews, airport workers can't use salt or calcium chloride to melt the ice because they will corrode the planes. The chemicals the airport does have - a mixture of glycol and urea - aren't effective when the temperature drops below 20 degrees, airport Executive Director Jacqueline Shuck said.

by CNB