Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Int'l Airport New $1.1-billion runway featured innovative earthmoving system and massive bridge over a highway.

For 3 years, observers saw something never before built on an airport site: Five miles of conveyor belt carried 27 million cu yd of earth -- and the plans of Hartsfield International, the world's busiest passenger airport -- on its maximum 72-in.-wide steel and rubber back. Bill Hammack of 5R Constructors adapted mining industry methods to minimize impacts of trucks on dense neighborhoods and complete a $350-million earthwork contract for the Atlanta airport's new 9,000-ft-long fifth runway. This shaved eight months off the job, one of the marked successes of an otherwise beleaguered $5.4-billion expansion program.