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WATCH: Night time resurfacing of Dublin Airport runway is brought forward

The daa says work to resurface Dublin Airport's main runway is being brought forward by two hours...
Newstalk
Newstalk

12.25 22 Nov 2017


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WATCH: Night time resurfacing...

WATCH: Night time resurfacing of Dublin Airport runway is brought forward

Newstalk
Newstalk

12.25 22 Nov 2017


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The daa says work to resurface Dublin Airport's main runway is being brought forward by two hours each day.
 
Work on the runway, known as R10/28, is more than two-thirds complete.
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The runway, which is 28 years old, also needs an upgrade of its ground lighting system and a full replacement of all cabling and ducting.
 
The 18-month project started in November 2016, and the airport say it is essential to ensure the airport's main runway can continue to operate safely.
 
Construction work had been taking place between 11.00pm and 5.00am nightly up to the end of October.
 
But due to shifts being lost because of low visibility, heavy rain and storms, the project start time has been brought forward to 9.00pm to meet the April 2018 deadline.
 
Contractors have eight hours every night to mobilise over 200 workers and 150 items of construction plant to work on a 100 metre section of the runway.
 
When all the equipment and contractors have left the site, the entire runway is put through a safety inspection to ensure it is ready for early morning flight departures.
 
Dublin Airport managing director, Vincent Harrison, says: "Our main runway has been the workhorse of Dublin Airport since it opened in 1989.
 
"It has facilitated over four million aircraft take offs and landings since then and this upgrade work is vital to the ongoing safe operation of the airport."
 
The project involves the full resurfacing of the runway, which is 2,637m long, with three new layers of asphalt.
 
Three taxiways serving the main runway have also been resurfaced.
 
The runway ground lighting system is being upgraded with 1,700 new LED lights, which will reduce energy consumption by 66%.
 
More than 10 kilometres of new electrical ducting and 200 kilometres of electrical cabling is also being installed.
 
 
During the construction work, Dublin Airport's oldest runway, R16/34 is being used.
 
This runway has two flight paths for arriving and departing aircraft.
 
The R16 flight path brings aircraft over rural areas of north Dublin, while the R34 approach brings aircraft over south Dublin across to Dublin Bay to Clontarf, Artane, Beaumont, Santry and Turnapin.
 
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), which has responsibility for air traffic control services, gave a commitment that during the construction works the preferred inbound flight path for Dublin Airport's secondary runway will be the northerly R16 approach, which brings aircraft over the least populated areas.
 
Dublin Airport says since the project started, 78% of flights have been directed to the northerly flight path while 22% of flights have been directed to the southerly approach.

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