Guernsey Ports is currently developing designs for the full rehabilitation of the current asphalt runway, taxiway and apron. The details from the survey will help inform the design of the foundation and base layers that will be required for the new runway and taxiways.
Although surveys were previously completed, the current stage of the project requires further detailed data for the engineering design and provide precise information on soil strength and load-bearing capacity at specific points along the runway and apron.
Local firm Geomarine is undertaking the work, under the direction of project designers RPS.
They will use a mechanical excavator to dig a series of trial holes on either side of the asphalt runway, and at each end, as well as alongside the taxiway. This will enable engineers to measure the properties of the surrounding soil, which will give a clear indication of what lies beneath the current hard surfaced areas.
At each location, detailed measurements will be undertaken at various depths, up to two metres below the surface.
This will include load-bearing capacity and likely settlement characteristics. No soil is being excavated from beneath the asphalt runway or taxiway.
The work started after the airport closed on Wednesday and will take place at night until the end of the weekend. The ground is fully reinstated in time for normal operations to start each morning.
The current design work will help to inform the proposals for Alderney that the Policy & Resources Committee will present to the States of Deliberation.
Various maintenance works have also been carried out on the runway and taxiway this year, to maintain the safety, reliability, and integrity of the current aerodrome infrastructure.
The airport project has been blighted by political decisions on the scale of the works required and its escalating cost. Guernsey States approval of a runway and airport rebuild was scrapped after tenders for the work came in at 50% more than the original cost estimates at some £36m., and so Guernsey has been reduced to looking again at runway rehabilitation only.
Alderney’s States submitted two costed proposals which have gone through a tested review but have been called premature by the States of Guernsey, though it did welcome a ‘strong commitment to cost-effective delivery and local capability’.
The Policy & Resources Committee did commit back in October to producing a policy letter on the project by the end of the year.
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