Main apron taxiway reconstruction for London City Airport
In 2017 Fjori carried out both a PCI and PCN evaluation of the main apron and its associated taxiway at the airport. This highlighted the need to strengthen the main taxiway to meet current and future use requirements.
- London City Airport
- Fjori Ltd
- London, UK
- 2017
- Design of rigid pavement reconstruction
- Production of specifications
- Civil engineering planning
- Evaluation of multiple phasing options
- Movement area planning
- The airport operates from only one runway, and therefore all works had to be designed and planned to be carried out at within nighttime and/or weekend closure in order for the runway and taxiways to be available for operations during daytime
- Fjori carried out a full visual condition survey and Pavement Condition Index evaluation
- Access to multiple stands is only via the taxiway to be reconstructed
- To minimise disruption to the apron, the project was split into 8 phases requiring careful planning of aircraft around each taxiway closure length
The airport therefore engaged Fjori to carry out detailed design options as to how the taxiway could be strengthened. Fjori reviewed flexible and rigid options, including the possibility of overlays, inlays and full depth reconstruction. The principal difficulty of the project is that in order to close parts of the taxiway, aircraft must be routed either back onto the runway or through adjacent stands. With runway capacity at a premium, it as decided to route aircraft through pairs of closed stands for each phase, working slowly along the taxiway phase-by-phase.
Fjori has carried out detailed pavement strengthening designs, including enhancements to the drainage and crossfalls. The aircraft movements have been modelled using AviPlan software, including the modelling of both jet blast and engine ingestion zones in order to demonstrate the viability of the works, including open excavations, close to aircraft traffic.