"Beca has continually provided a high level of service throughout the project through injection of sound technical innovation, options and proactive project management. They have demonstrated an understanding of the airport environment within an operational and business context which has greatly assisted us in our decision making." Vince Scanlon, General Manager, Adelaide Airport.
| In 2007 Adelaide Airport’s asset management system indicated that a large number of pavements at Adelaide Airport were approaching the end of their lifecycle and would require an overlay in the near future. Beca Airports was engaged in September 2009 to project manage and design the total project delivery of their Runway and Taxiway Overlay. Beca Airports has been active at Adelaide Airport since 2008 to deliver a Project Delivery Methodology Report. |
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In a first for the Australian airport industry, an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) procurement model was implemented based on advice from Adelaide Airport, together with a measure and value type contract. Innovation was required in order to conduct the project in the extreme risk adverse and regulated airport environment.
Considered the largest night-time airport maintenance overlay and Airfield LED installation ever conducted in Australia, features of the project include:
- 58,000 tonnes of asphalt laid over 416,000m2
- of runways and taxiways the installation of over 600 new LED centerline light fittings and 230 new transformer pits 28km of cable installed in over 3,300m of new trenches approximately 1,000m2
- of existing asphalt was treated with an emulsion treatment 5,200m2
- of grass was rolled out on shoulders that are subject to high jet blast.
The main works, which were undertaken at night in restricted possession periods, involved profiling and resurfacing over 416,000m² of existing pavement with almost 60,000 tonnes of asphalt being laid in 72 nights. The availability of the runways and taxiways for construction was driven largely by the airport’s curfew from 23:00 to 06:00 during which only the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) and freight operators are permitted to operate.
Safety issues were paramount at the 24-hour operational international airport, with adequate airside security needing to be maintained at all times. These essential restrictions placed a much higher level of complexity on the logistics associated with delivering the project. No aircraft operations were disrupted during construction and a proactive consultation effort kept impacts on other stakeholders to a minimum.
Beca successfully delivered in lengthening the pavement life of both of Adelaide Airport’s runways and the majority of its taxiway network, with the project culminating two weeks ahead of schedule in April 2011.
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