Stansted runway re-surfaced

It's taken nine months, but the runway at Stansted airport has been fully re-surfaced on time and on budget. Since February 2006, over 35,000 tonnes of asphalt have been used to complete the £30 million project.

Stansted is a single runway airport, so works could only take place at night when flights were a minimum. At weekends, the runway would be closed to aircraft between midnight and 6am, while from Monday to Wednesday the length of the runway was reduced to allow works at either end.

Dave Powell, General Manager – Airside for BAA Stansted said:

"I would like to thank all those who have worked tirelessly over the past nine months to deliver such a challenging and complex project so successfully on one of the busiest single runway airport's in the world. Great skill, dedication and teamwork has enabled us to complete the work on time and on budget, and by keeping disruption to a minimum we have ensured that airport operations have continued to run smoothly throughout the duration of the project.

"Months of careful pre-planning and consultation with the airlines also took place to enable them to maintain their challenging flight schedules while dealing with the restrictions the works would bring on a live operational runway."

A special type of surface is used for runways, it has grooves that help aircraft tyres perform better in wet weather conditions. Over 200 personnel, supported by 84 vehicles, worked on the project and engineers replaced more than 1000 runway lights and installed half a million metres worth of electric cabling while the resurfacing was going on.

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By: Abby Oleksik