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by leecb 1741 days ago
> accumulated rubber from those landings

Rubber accumulation on runways is a normal and expected situation. Part of runway maintenance at airports serving larger aircraft includes regular removal of the rubber using high pressure water or chemicals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfield_rubber_removal

2 comments

I'm still always surprised just how much rubber is allowed to accumulate.

Here's a snapshot of one of the Zurich runways: https://www.google.com/maps/@47.4792249,8.5411849,660m/data=...

Scroll a little NW or SE to see what the actual color of the runway is underneath all the rubber.

i'm not surprised, look how invasive the cleaning techniques are.
Not going to lie, I never thought this was a thing that'd need doing, but on further reflection it seems so obvious I'm kinda mad it never occurred to me in retrospect.