Development and Evaluation of Enhanced Airfield Signage for Temporary Information

Abstract

The aviation community has faced several accidents and incidents on infrastructures and procedures temporarily modified for the purpose of construction works. The analysis of these events shows that usual means of communication to the air crews are the weak link of the safety chain. To address the key challenge of situational awareness during construction works, the Airport Construction Advisory Council of FAA and Paris–Charles de Gaulle Airport (Paris-CDG) developed and evaluated with the airfield community, from 2011 to 2016, an innovative aviation signage. Parallel and complementary studies in human factors led to the definition of specifications for a temporary information signage, also called orange construction sign. Paris-CDG focused on the development of specific messages for each one of the major hazards that could require an increased situational awareness of the air crews during taxiing and takeoff. The results of the evaluation conducted by FAA were published in September 2015. The purpose of this paper is to present the parallel study performed by the author at Paris-CDG with the coalition of the airside operations stakeholders. Both research projects are convergent and confirm the relevance of the orange sign concept for increasing the situational awareness and preventing safety events during airfield construction.