A Drainage Master Plan to Facilitate Future Growth

The Sedona Airport is a non-towered airport located two miles southwest of the central business district of Sedona in Yavapai County, AZ. The airport covers 220 acres and has one runway and one helipad. While not able to accommodate commercial jets of the size of the Boeing 727 or larger, it does, however, attract many smaller business jets and aircraft such as Cessna and Beech airplanes and helicopters. Sedona is a highly popular destination among Arizona tourists. The airport is located on top of a high mesa overlooking a major portion of the city. The airport is also located very close to the red rocks of Sedona.

Yavapai County was awarded a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop a Drainage Master Plan (DMP) for the Sedona Airport. The DMP evaluated drainage patterns, identified deficiencies, developed solutions to address these deficiencies, and helped facilitate the Airport’s future growth as outlined in the 2017 Airport Master Plan. Yavapai County requested a proposal to develop the DMP from Coffman Associates, Inc., who in turn requested this proposal from Dibble as part of a larger project.

Dibble analyzed the current drainage characteristics of the Airport, prepared drainage improvement concepts, recommended a selected alternative or set of alternatives, estimated likely project costs, evaluated feasible phasing of implementation, and prepared conceptual designs.

Sedona Airport generally slopes at a 2–2.5% grade from northeast to southwest. The Apron D grading design matched existing elevations on three of the four sides of the apron, which made it difficult to create sump conditions to capture rainfall runoff. The Airport installed trench drains attached to catch basins to increase the runoff capture area and divert runoff to the infield areas. This design aligned with Dibble’s recently completed DMP, which proposed the installation of an infield storm drain system.

Project Lifecycle