Edinburgh airport Main Runway Surfacing repairs
Client
Allied Infrastructure
Value
£187,000
Date
November 2022
The Project
The scheme involved the surface repair of the main runway at Edinburgh airport over 4 weekends during the winter months. Work was completed on night shift at weekends under a short runway closure window from midnight to 04.30am and involved the replacement of small, medium, and large asphalt sections of the runway. This included hand laying the first 87 patches over the first 3 shifts and then machine laying the rest of the sections over the remaining weekends.
Our scope of work included:
Planning, preparation, and paperwork in advance of the project.
Planing out the patches as per the schedule of works.
Precision saw cutting the patch joints and breaking out the cut areas using excavators.
Sweeping and pressure washing the repair areas to ensure no dirt was present on the vertical faces of the joints.
Drying the patches and joints using a hot compressed air lance.
Painting the vertical face of the joints with bitumen.
Spray application of tack coat to the repair area.
Laying of asphalt surface course and compaction using 10 Te and 120 rollers.
Drying of joints and final sealing using ‘over banding’ joint sealant.
We successfully completed the runway repairs over 4 weekends, ensuring the runway was reopened at 4.30am each morning.
The work was deemed to be urgent due to the deterioration of the runway surface and the need to maintain high standards of runway safety. The work, therefore, had to be completed over 4 nightshift weekends in November throughout the inclement autumn weather period. The working window for each shift was short (midnight to 4.30am) during which all our planned work had to be completed and the runway fully swept before being handed back to the airport operations department on time each morning prior to the first flights of the day.
Once we had planed out the surface, we had to guarantee that the work would be completed to allow the runway to reopen on time. To ensure this deadline was met and to mitigate risks of project delays and plant breakdowns, we deployed standby operatives and surfacing plant to the airport and had standby asphalt suppliers on call.
The project required extensive security clearances for our staff and material suppliers and security checks were regularly carried out on our staff, equipment, and material deliveries throughout the project.
