RUNWAY AT AIRPORT

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 15

RUNWAY AT AIRPORT

Resurfacing This Year

The main runway at the Christchurch Airport will be resurfaced this year with about 10.000 tons of asphaltic hot-m ix. The first section will be completed by the end of May, but the contractor will be given another year in which to complete the whole job.

The work will have to fit in with airport operations, but there will be times when the airport will have to be closed to traffic for a day or so at a time. The contract, tenders for which will close on February 27, calls for the resurfacing of 105,700 square yards of the main runway. Excluded from the contract are the extension completed recently to allow the airport to be used by pure jets and about 600 ft where the extension joins the previous runway. Whoever secures the contract will be bound to complete the 2000 ft at the north end of the runway by May of this year. The central 4000 ft area will be worked by the contractor to fit in with airport operations. Normally when the weather is calm or there is a north-west wind work will be able to proceed on the runway, for both Friendships and Viscounts will be able to land on the alternative runway, and DC3’s can land on the grass.

When the intersection of the two runways comes to be sealed, however, the airport will have to be closed to all traffic.