Page 379 - Planning and Design of Airports

330 Airp o r t D e sign

FIGURE 8-29 Runway distance remaining sign.

Runway Distance Remaining Signs
Runway distance remaining signs are placed on the side of a runway
and provide the pilot with information on how much runway is left
during takeoff or landing operations. These signs are placed at 1000 ft
intervals along the runway is a descending sequential order. Nor-
mally, these signs consist of white numerals on a black background,
as illustrated in Fig. 8-29.
The FAA recommends that the signs be configured in one of three
ways [25]. The preferred method of configuration, and the most eco-
nomical, is to place double-faced signs on only one side of the run-
way. In this configuration it is recommended that the signs be placed
on the left side of the most frequently used direction of the runway.
The signs may be placed on the right side of the runway when neces-
sary due to required runway-taxiway separations or due to conflicts
between intersecting runways or taxiways. An alternative method is
to provide a set of single-faced signs on either side of the runway to
indicate the distance remaining when the runway is used in both
directions. The advantage of this configuration is that the distance
remaining is more accurately reflected when the runway length is not
an even multiple of 1000 ft. Another alternative uses double-faced
signs on both sides of the runway. The advantage of this method is
that the runway distance is displayed on both sides of the runway in
each direction which is an advantage when a sign on one side needs
to be omitted because of a clearance conflict. When the runway dis-
tance is not an even multiple of 1000 ft, one half of the excess distance
is added to the distance on each sign on each runway end. For exam-
ple, if the runway length available is 8250 ft, the last sign is located at