An upgrade of the airport’s main runway is expected to take 18 months to complete.
150 construction jobs are to be created at Dublin Airport in a major project to upgrade the airport’s main runway.
Construction on the project is due to start today, Monday 14 November and will take place overnight between 11pm and 5am for up to 18 months.
The main runway at Dublin Airport, Runway 10/28, opened in 1989 and typically handles 95% of all flights at Dublin Airport. This is the first time in its 27-year history that the runway has had a full overhaul.
The work is required to ensure that the main runway continues to meet the strict regulations governing the operation and specification of runways at major airports.
Work on the upgrade of the main runway, which is weather dependent, is due to take place every weeknight for the next 18 months. It will involve a full resurfacing of the runway, which is 2,637m long, with three new layers of asphalt.
The project also includes replacing the ground lighting system for the runway with new LED lights, which will reduce energy consumption by about 66%.
Construction teams will overhaul a portion of the runway every night before it is handed back to operations early each morning in time for Dublin Airport’s busiest time of the day. The window for construction is only about four hours per night due to the set up process required and the meticulous preparations for returning the runway to normal operations every morning.
There will be no new flight paths used during the construction programme, but the work will increase the usage of some existing flight paths.
While the night-time construction works are ongoing, flights will use Dublin Airport’s secondary runway, which is also known as the crosswind runway. Runway 16/34 has been the airport’s secondary runway since 1989 and typically handles about 5% of total traffic at the airport.
Runway 16/34 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.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), which has responsibility for air traffic control services, has given 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. The southerly R34 approach will only be used if required due to wind direction – as aircraft must land and take off into the wind.
Commenting on the upgrade of the runway, Dublin Airport Managing Director Vincent Harrison said: “This is an essential investment in the future of Dublin Airport and in the future of the Irish economy.
“Our main runway has been the workhorse of Dublin Airport since 1989 and has allowed the airport to grow from five million passengers per year to a record 25 million passengers last year.
“More than four million aircraft have taken off or landed on our main runway during the past 27 years and it’s now in need of a substantial overhaul.”
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