£1m works to start on Airport runway

Monday 12 July 2021

A £1m “mid-life health check” on Jersey Airport’s runway, including resurfacing and remarking of lines, is getting underway this week.

Starting on Tuesday, with works taking place between 21:30 and 06:00 over six evenings excluding Sunday, the project is expected to take eight weeks to complete.

Starting on the western end working eastwards, the first part of the work will involve specialist engineering design and planning company, AECOM, drilling into the surface of the runway to test its continuing viability.

A GPR survey of the runway, which involves using radar pulsar to create an image of the subsurface, will also be undertaken.

The second part of the work will see Rhinophalt put along the runway’s entire length to ensure there is sufficient friction to allow larger aircraft to travel into the island in the future, while ensuring continuing compliance with international safety standards.

The works will also see a replacement of the Addagrip on the end of Runway 26 (eastern), which ensures protection against degradation of its surface.

Runway lines will then be remarked to the most recent operational requirements of the Director of Civil Aviation.

This part of the work is being carried out by a team from UK-based airfield engineering and maintenance specialists Colas Ltd, which previously worked on the taxiway in 2000 and resurfaced the runway in winter 2008/2009.

Local contractors, including Brenwal Civil Engineering and MBM Services will also be supporting the works programme.

The works are not expected to impact the Airport’s current operations, and the mail plane and emergency medical flights will not be affected.

“Whilst the current runway is safe for daily operation, we have to undertake this essential work to ensure that it continues to meet the safety requirements both now and in the future,” said Airport Director Robin MacRae.

“ Work needs to be undertaken overnight so as not to impact upon our usual daytime operations and at this time of the year when we expect drier and warmer weather conditions for the materials being laid to dry sufficiently. Rest assured that every measure will be taken by our contractors to ensure noise levels and inconvenience is kept to a minimum”.