East Midlands Airport is to undertake a full length runway refurbishment project during November and December 2016, which will see the runway closed over each weekend in the months.
Beginning on 5 November 2016 and concluding on 19 December 2016, the project will see around 360 workers every weekend laying 50,000 tonnes of specially formulated material across 150,000 square metres.
The refurbishment will be completed over seven consecutive weekends, meaning the airport will be closed to all traffic for 48 hours each weekend. The closures will begin at 20:00h on each Saturday and end at 20:00h on each Monday, except the final weekend, which will end at 13:00hr.
East Midlands Airport managing director, Andy Cliffe says: “After an in depth consultation with our airlines and cargo operators, we came to the decision that completing the project in this way was the best way to avoid major disruption in the lead up to Christmas. The timing for us is crucial and we had to look to do this in the winter season, when we naturally aren’t as busy.”
Whilst the runway is not operational, the airport is also replacing over 1200 lights on and around the area with LED lighting, which is more environmentally friendly.
The airport’s runway was last refurbished in 1999, and has a natural lifespan of around 12-17 years. Galliford Try is the principle contractor and has worked together with the management and operations team at the airport to ensure that the airport’s operation has minimal disruption.
In July, East Midlands saw a year-on-year fall in cargo tonnage, as it handled 27,153 tonnes, a four per cent decline on July 2015.
