Rehabilitation of Shannon Airport Runway 06 24

Shannon Airport supports 46,000 jobs in the Mid West region of Ireland. In Summer 2017, Shannon Airport carried out the rehabilitation of 2400m (75%) of its main runway. The €14 million investment ensures the integrity of the runway for the next 25 years. RPS carried out the detailed design, tender process and site supervision for the works on this critical piece of national infrastructure on behalf of Shannon Airport Authority (SAA).

RPS used some innovative elements during the design and procurement phases such as, the use of point cloud scanning to survey the runway, using a collaborative NEC 3 contract and setting a high quality mark for the award criteria for the appointment of the main Contractor. Coupled with this innovation, RPS used its extensive aviation experience to design an economic and trustworthy, grooved Marshall Asphalt runway complete with new sustainable LED aeronautical ground lighting. 

The rehabilitation project was nominated by Engineers Ireland for the Project of the Year Award in 2018.

Solution

RPS used point cloud surveying to accurately survey the runway during night time possessions.

RPS incorporated the use of polymer modified binders in the Marshal Asphalt design to reduce the amount of the existing runway pavement that had to be removed This in turn reduced the amount of new pavement that had to be placed every night. Our design made it possible for the project to be successfully completed within the tight night time possession windows.