Auckland Airport has begun recycling its runway by laying the foundation for a massive airfield development. 108,000 tonnes of recycled concrete is planned to be used in the project. The new airfield space will be 250,000 square metres and be located west of the International terminal.
Chief infrastructure officer at Auckland Airport, Andre Lovatt, said that reusing existing concrete from the site was a sustainable solution to create the strong and stable base the area needs.
“We’ve been underway with pavement renewals across our runway and taxiways for several years. It’s a necessary and important part of maintaining Auckland Airport’s most important asset. Over the past few years, we’ve replaced hundreds of concrete slabs 36 square metres each,” said Lovatt.
“Rather than disposing of this old pavement offsite, we’ve been setting it aside, creating a huge mound of 45,000 cubic metres of concrete south of the airfield. The old pavement is now being trucked to crushing machines on site for use in the airfield expansion, to be completed between now and mid-2025.”
The project will span the distance of 23 rugby fields and is the most significant expansion in the airport’s history. The expansion will also allow the development of a new domestic airport to be integrated.
The new airfield development will add extra taxiways and seven remote stands for aircraft that layover for several hours before departing again, five of which will have in-ground jet fuel reticulation and other services. In time it will connect to a planned cargo precinct and, further into the future, a second runway.
Construction for the development is expected to cost nearly $3.8 billion for the entire terminal refurbishment, including the new airfield.
