Construction on Brisbane Airport’s second runway reaches milestone

AS Brisbane Airport’s second runway construction reaches a key milestone, new images have been released to show how the billion-dollar project will look when it’s finished. SEE THE VIDEO

BRISBANE Airport’s second runway construction reached a key milestone today that has coincided with the release of new images of what the $1.3 billion project will look like when completed in 2020.

Construction company McConnell Dowell has completed portions of the taxiways that will connect the new runway system with the existing system and terminals.

It includes an underpass that will allow the public to travel under the taxiways and was built to withstand the weight of the world’s biggest planes.

McConnell Dowell managing director Jim Frith said the underpass was an “engineering feat” as it was 1.6m thick at the deepest point and had to be strong enough take the weight of a “fully-laden A380 as well as any planned, future variants”.

Construction of the new runway at Brisbane Airport reaches a major milestone.

“To put the complexity of this project into perspective, the underpass is being constructed 5m below sea level, meaning that the dewatering system is required to remove the equivalent of the volume of two Olympic swimming pools in a single, 24-hour period, while the physical structure is comprised of approximately 20,000m3 of concrete, and 4000 tons of reinforced steel” he said.

Brisbane Airport Corporation CEO Gert-Jan de Graaff said the finish line for the “biggest aviation project in Australia” was approaching with the new runway due for completion in 2020.

“Brisbane’s new runway has been on master plan documents since the 1970s, so to be here where we can physically stand on taxiways and see the foundations of the runway being laid is a huge achievement for the thousands of people who have been involved with this project since its very early days,” he said.

“While this milestone is a great achievement for the project, it is only the tip of the iceberg for what is to come in the next few months.

“The focus now is on the physical runway and broader taxiway systems which are starting to take shape with the initial base layers of crushed rock already being placed, working from the centre out.”