Repairs by night to runway

Press, 17 February 1978, Page 1

Repairs by night to runway

Contractors will work through the night for three weeks to patch “failed” areas on the main runway at Christchurch Airport. Tenders have been called by the Christchurch City Council for the work, which is expected to start soon.

According to the council’s street-works engineer (Mr H. E. Surtees), only the top 50 mm of the runway surface, which was laid about 15 years ago, needs patching. “Over that period, with the increased wear from rising volumes of heavy aircraft, the surface has begun to show natural failure,” he said. The work will be done between 10 p.m. and 6.30 a.m., so that disruptio- to flights will be minimal. Mr Surtees said that it was not anticipated that the work would continue outside these hours and delay scheduled flights, as happened several times last year, when work was not completed on time. In April, three aircraft were “stacked up” over the airport, one for more than an hour, when a runwav resealing job ran late.

In August, another aircraft was kept circling for 50 minutes while workmen struggled to fill in a big excavation where the highspeed taxiway was being widened. “We will keep a orettv

strict eye on the situation to ensure there are no hitches,” said Mr Surtees. The task involves patching about 1900 sq m of the runway, or about 1 per cent of its total area. Mr Surtees said the council planned to completely overhaul the runway in less than two years. In the meantime, the work wasrequired to keep the runway, up to standard during the coming winter. Last summer. the

southern third of the runway was completely resealed, he said. This is the work which held up the flights in April. In September it is planned to resurface the northern third, and a year later, the middle section. Mr Surtees emphasised that the work was “nothing dramatic.” “It is just that we have to watch runway surfaces very carefully, and we like to be meticulous,” he said.