Lagan Construction removing the earth bank in front of the terminal building at Guernsey Airport, which was filmed on the 13th March 2012. There were two excavators, a Komatsu PC350LC and a Caterpillar, some road going trucks and an ADT (Articulated Dump Truck) involved in removing the large heap of soil.
The earth bank, which was also acting as a noise barrier bund, was taken to the west end of the airport, where it was spread out. Later on in the project, this earth bank by the terminal building was rebuilt using lower quality soil.
AIRPORT HISTORY AND LAGAN CONSTRUCTION'S WORK
Guernsey Airport opened on the 5th May 1939, and today handles nearly a million travellers every year.
Originally Guernsey Airport had four grass runways, but 1960 saw the construction of a new single tarmacked runway 4,800 ft (1,463 m) long.
In 2002 the new airport terminal building, car park and surrounding area, was built by Hochtief and became operational on the 19th May 2004. Hochtief also demolished the old terminal building that dated from 1939.
In March 2012, Lagan Construction began work on a major programme of essential maintenance and improvements, representing probably the largest development at the airport in more than 70 years. The project was called Airport 2040 and the work that was done is expected to keep the airport going until the year 2040. The work which cost £80million (€93 million at the time) was due to last 22 months, but actually finished two months ahead of schedule.
The work included:
* Construction of an additional 120 metre runway section to the west.
* Create longer grass safety areas at both ends of the runway.
* Removing a long dip in the runway by building it up.
* Resurfacing of the whole runway.
* Resurface all the taxiways.
* Extend the existing taxiway to join up with the runway extension.
* Install a new surface water drainage system.
* Reconstruct all the concrete apron areas.
* Construct new apron areas where there were grass areas.
* Provide additional aircraft stands on the aprons.
* Install new ground lighting.
* Install new navigational aids.
* Move and replace all the runway approach lights.
Most of the work on the apron was done during the day, but the work on the runway was mainly carried out at night, while the airport was closed. The runway then had to be returned to a usable state prior to reopening at 6am each morning. That element of the project was expected to last around seven months. To carry out the work, Lagan Construction built a concrete batching plant on a field opposite the airport entrance, it built a village of portacabins near the Mallard Hotel to house it's staff, they built an office block built out of portacabins on a site at the back of the spectators car park at La Villiaze and they built a temporary dock at St. Sampsons Harbour.
This dock was where small cargo ships constantly delivered different grades of sand and aggregate for the project, which were then stored in huge heaps on the Longue Hougue reclamation site. The sand and aggregates were then transported using a fleet of large trucks and John Deere tractors and trailers from there to Guernsey Airport. All the plant machinery and trucks used for the project arrived on the local RoRo ferries, Commodore Goodwill and Commodore Clipper and were moved in convoy from St. Peter Port Harbour, to the airport overnight, when the roads were empty of traffic.
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