Narrative:

The event occurred while departing from lrd. The captain was the pilot monitoring and the first officer was the pilot flying. The captain was taxiing the aircraft. We called lrd ground for taxi. We thought our taxi instructions were to taxi a; cross runway 14; G; left and hold short runway 18R. The instructions did not make sense to us because taxiway a was closed between our location and the direction we had to taxi. I replied back to ground; 'taxi east; G; cross runway14; left; to and hold short of 18R.' ground responded back; 'roger.' we discussed the miscommunication between ourselves and decided there was no way ATC wanted us to taxi on a because it was notamed closed and we could clearly see the barricades right in front of us. Furthermore; we had been there [a few] days prior and the taxi instructions were east; G; cross 14; left to 18R which made sense since taxiway a was closed.the ramp also had aircraft parked and no taxiways to guide us other than taxiway a. We started our taxi to 18R via east; G. Once we made our turn onto taxiway G ground asked where we were going; with an immense amount of hostility and irritability. The captain immediately stopped our taxi. The ATC controller then said your taxi instructions were taxi a to G; not east to G. I replied back 'a was closed on the part of the ramp we were on.' ground replied 'you should have taxied on the open ramp beside the closed part of taxiway a.' that thought never entered our mind; to taxi on a relatively unlit; unmarked ramp around a closed portion of taxiway a and to pick taxiway a on the other side of the construction. We apologized for the confusion and asked him what he would like us to do. He then told us to continue taxi on G to 18R. In hindsight; we should have double checked with ground control about the taxi instructions which did not make sense and seemed unsafe given that we had no knowledge of the condition of the ramp and no other information about taxiing around the closed taxiway.we were the only aircraft taxiing on the airport at the time with no potential taxi conflict. I recommend better guidance concerning taxiing on the open ramp to mitigate future confusion. If taxiway east to G is operational that should also be the recommended taxi to either 18R/36L given taxiway a closure. Also; I should have filed this report within 24 hours of the incident but got distracted with life when I got home.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A flight crew reported they misunderstood ATC taxi instructions due to a taxiway closure.

Narrative: The event occurred while departing from LRD. The Captain was the Pilot Monitoring and the First officer was the Pilot Flying. The Captain was taxiing the aircraft. We called LRD Ground for taxi. We thought our taxi instructions were to taxi A; cross Runway 14; G; L and hold short Runway 18R. The instructions did not make sense to us because Taxiway A was closed between our location and the direction we had to taxi. I replied back to ground; 'Taxi E; G; cross runway14; L; to and hold short of 18R.' Ground responded back; 'Roger.' We discussed the miscommunication between ourselves and decided there was no way ATC wanted us to taxi on A because it was NOTAMed closed and we could clearly see the barricades right in front of us. Furthermore; we had been there [a few] days prior and the taxi instructions were E; G; cross 14; L to 18R which made sense since taxiway A was closed.The ramp also had aircraft parked and no taxiways to guide us other than Taxiway A. We started our taxi to 18R via E; G. Once we made our turn onto Taxiway G ground asked where we were going; with an immense amount of hostility and irritability. The Captain immediately stopped our taxi. The ATC controller then said your taxi instructions were Taxi A to G; not E to G. I replied back 'A was closed on the part of the ramp we were on.' Ground replied 'you should have taxied on the open ramp beside the closed part of Taxiway A.' That thought never entered our mind; to taxi on a relatively unlit; unmarked ramp around a closed portion of Taxiway A and to pick Taxiway A on the other side of the construction. We apologized for the confusion and asked him what he would like us to do. He then told us to continue taxi on G to 18R. In hindsight; we should have double checked with Ground Control about the taxi instructions which did not make sense and seemed unsafe given that we had no knowledge of the condition of the ramp and no other information about taxiing around the closed taxiway.We were the only aircraft taxiing on the airport at the time with no potential taxi conflict. I recommend better guidance concerning taxiing on the open ramp to mitigate future confusion. If Taxiway E to G is operational that should also be the recommended taxi to either 18R/36L given Taxiway A closure. Also; I should have filed this report within 24 hours of the incident but got distracted with life when I got home.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.