Luton Airport has completed an £18million project to resurface its runway, in what has been described as the airport’s biggest airfield engineering programme in two decades.
The work, designed to improve the durability and long-term performance of the runway, was carried out over five months of overnight construction in order to avoid disruption to daytime flights.
A team of around 120 resurfacing specialists worked through the night to deliver the project, which required detailed coordination across the airport including airfield operations, air traffic control, engineering, transport and security teams.
Work began at one minute past midnight each night and had to be finished by 5.45am before the first scheduled flight of the day departed. The operation involved more than 120 vehicles and pieces of equipment during each night shift.
As part of the wider programme, the airport also installed more than 1,000 new energy-efficient LED runway lights, completed a taxiway extension and fitted a new weather sensor to improve forecasting accuracy.
Marc Wolman, infrastructure director at Luton Airport, said: “The resurfacing of the London Luton Airport runway was an immense, once in a generation project – the airport’s largest airfield engineering programme in two decades.
“A complex project of this scale will always present operational challenges and we are delighted to have delivered this critical piece of infrastructure safely, on time, on budget and with minimal impact on airfield operations or our neighbouring communities.
“Now, after more than 18 months of meticulous planning and execution, LLA has a new runway in peak condition to ensure a safe, simple and friendly passenger experience for the millions of travellers who pass through the airport each year.”
The resurfacing involved replacing around 30,000 tonnes of asphalt across the 2.16km runway and took more than 130,000 hours of work to complete.
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