East Midlands runway refurb

A full-length runway refurbishment is taking place at East Midlands Airport during November and December, with officials saying work will be completed over seven consecutive weekends, a UK first for such projects.

The airport will be closed to traffic for 48hr each weekend from 20:00 each Saturday to 20:00 each Monday, except the final weekend, when the closure will end at 13:00.

Managing director Andy Cliffe said: “After an in depth consultation with airlines and cargo operators, we decided 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.”

The refurbishment, from 5 November – 19 December, will see around 360 workers every weekend laying 50,000 tonnes of specially formulated material over a 150,000sq m area.

While the runway is not operational, the airport is also replacing more than 1,200 lights on and around the area with LED, which are more environmentally-friendly.

The runway was last refurbished in 1999, and has a natural lifespan of around 12-17 years. 

www.eastmidlandsairport.com

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