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Adelaide Airport is commencing resurfacing works on its runways and taxiways, which are required every 10 to 12 years.
The Main Runway and Taxiways Overlay Project (MRTOP), expected to be completed by August 2024, is part of the airport’s ongoing maintenance program and will mostly be carried out during the airport’s 11pm–6am curfew to avoid disrupting scheduled services.
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“This is a significant, logistically complex project. Each night our project team will remove and then re-surface each section of runway or taxiway and be completed in time for the regular 6am aircraft departures the following morning,” said Adelaide Airport’s managing director, Brenton Cox.
“All up the re-surfacing project requires more than 60,000 tonnes of asphalt to cover 413,000 square metres of runway and taxiways. The same amount of asphalt would be enough to reseal a 40km stretch of road between Adelaide and McLaren Vale.
“The airport will also replace about 660 first-generation LED light fittings on our runway and taxiways with more energy efficient LED lighting to help further reduce our carbon footprint.”
During the resurfacing works, the 10-15 aircraft that use the airport in curfew hours – mostly freight and emergency flights – will all use the south-east to north-west cross runway, said Cox.
“We have been notifying neighbouring residents and those under the cross runway flight path prior to the main runway closures so that they are aware there may be increased noise impact. This is essential maintenance but we recognise there will be disruptions to local communities and thank them for their patience and understanding over the coming months,” he said.
“We will undertake additional measures to reduce the noise impact, such as limiting delivery of materials to daylight hours and replacing the reverse ‘beeper’ sound on large vehicles.”
The last major resurfacing at Adelaide was carried out in 2010–11.
