Australian Aviation — January 2018

86 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION

by the Jan de Nul Group based in
Luxembourg. It spent several months
pumping sand on to the runway site
from a part of Moreton Bay free of
any environmental sensitivity. As
an indication of the scope of the
task, at one time the dredger was
pumping sand along a pipeline for an
unprecedented distance just short of
nine kilometres.
Coughlan recalled how the captain
of theCharles Darwin, on his last job
after 40 years in dredging, said he was
going to retire a happy man because
he never believed it possible to pump
the distance he pumped at Brisbane.
Fast forward to the end of 2017
and joint venture contractor Skyway
began the process of skimming off
4.5million cubic metres of sand
no longer required as part of the
compaction process.
“In the worst parts of the site we
predicted up to about three metres
of ground settlement and we’ve had
just under that. The centre part of the
runway we only predicted about half
a metre of settlement and we’ve had
about 350 to 400 millimetres. So all
the ground settlement is complete
and there is excess sand to come off,”
Coughlan said.
He added, wryly: “So far we have
about 500,000 cubic metres of that
off, so there is only about four million
to go!”
Speaking from London where he
was fronting a presentation on the
project at the Airport Expansion and
Improvements Conference, Coughlan
spoke of his pride at the success of the
reclamation stage and confidence in
confronting any future challenges as
his team looks forward to the runway
really starting to take shape.
“One of the things I’m really proud
of is that we do a lot of scenario
planning. We are continually doing
all the risk assessment and scenarios
for what could go wrong. Everything
is planned out, so if suddenly we
find something we will have already
contemplated that as a scenario and
will implement ‘Plan B’. So it goes very
smoothly.
“You could call me very
conservative. The last thing a
contractor wants is uncertainty in any
given situation.”
Cast ahead to the remainder of
2018 and we are back in the territory
of mind-boggling numbers. With
machinery in place, paving trials will
begin reliant on the blending of fine
crushed rock from an initial 100,000
tonne stockpile. Subsequently, a
staggering 1.2 million tonnes of fine

crushed rock will be required to feed

an onsite production line making the

different pavement layers and concrete

mixtures.

The result, according to official

BAC statistics, will be 100,000 tonnes

of aircraft grade asphalt, mainly for

the runway, and 380,000 tonnes of

concrete.

The schedule could see paving trials

complete by late April or early May

at which point, as Coughlan put it,

“it’s on. We start actually building the

runway.”

By November 2018 he believes

there will be sufficient visual clues

to the new runway to underpin a

significant project milestone: the

renaming of the existing main runway

as 01 Right and 19 Left to negate any

pilot confusion.

Coughlan explained: “One of

the learnings from other airport

developments is that when a new

parallel runway starts to take shape it

can be confusing to a pilot lining up,

say, eight to 10 nautical miles out.

“So we already have it in place with

Airservices Australia to rename that

existing runway well ahead of the

project completion.”

The existing 1,700 x 30 metre

cross runway 14/32 will be closed and

converted into a taxiway, principally

to link the current general aviation,

regional freight and Royal Flying

Doctor Service facilities to the new

runway via a left taxi or the existing

runway by taxiing right.

New runway construction should

be complete by the end of 2019

and will be followed by detailed

commissioning over about three

months to prove the integrity of

ground lighting (about 2,000 runway

and taxiway lights and 40 kilometres

of electrical wiring), navigation aids,

and control tower monitoring.

Foresight in the planning of

Brisbane Airport in the ’70s and ’80s

as a much-needed replacement for

the original facility at nearby Eagle

Farm included the 360-degree control

tower that stands as a significant

landmark for anyone approaching

the terminals by road. The vision was

always for an airport with parallel

runways and, according to Coughlan,

the control tower fitout included space

to duplicate the consoles catering for

current airside operations.

He says that there will be huge

logistical benefit in widely spaced

parallel runways (they are two

kilometres apart): “They will operate

as independent runways. There will

be no crossovers in the air so we can

The dredger Charles Darwin

spent several months pumping

sand onto the runway site.

BRISBANE AIRPORT

Artist’s impression of the new

Dryandra Road underpass to be

built beneath taxiways as part

of the parallel runway project.

BRISBANE AIRPORT

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